
Woodburytype. A. P. R. P. Co., Phila. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF FRANKFORD, 
AS IT IS. 



ONE HUNDRED YEARS 



Presbyterian Church 



FRANKFORD. 



COMPILED BY 



THE REV. THOMAS MURPHY. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH. 
1872. 





Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

THE REV. THOMAS MURPHY, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, in Washington. 



JAS. B. RODG-ERS CO.. 

ELECTROTYPERS AND PRINTERS, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



fTTEDNESDAY, the Fourth of May. Eighteen 
I ? Hundred and Seventy, was a day never 
to be forgotten in the history of the Pres- 
byterian Church of Frankford. It was the 
Centennial Anniversary of the laying of 
the corner-stone of its first church edifice. 
The occasion was observed with such an 
impressiveness and such a gladness as were 
becoming an epoch over which few churches, 
at least in this land, are as yet permitted to 
rejoice. The memory of the day itself should 
be cherished. Its joy. its harmony, its hal- 
lowed memories, its festivities, its impressive 
services, its happy gathering, the smiles of 
Providence that were upon it. should all be 
recorded, that they may be read over in the 

3 



4 



INTRODUCTION. 



future for the renewed pleasure of those who 
participated in them, or for the information of 
those who may form this congregation when 
its present members shall have passed away. 

Some months previous to the day, the Ses- 
sion of the Church appointed a committee of 
eleven members of the congregation to make 
suitable arrangements for its celebration. The 
names of this committee were, Reuben Myers, 
Alfred H. Foster, John McMullen, Frederick 
K. Womrath, James C. Thompson, Linford 
Castor, Joseph Ball, Howard Yonker, Samuel 
Wakeling, Wm, E. Hamill, Rudolph Adams. 
Faithfully and well did this committee per- 
form the duties which had been assigned them, 
projecting a plan for the observance of the 
day, forming themselves into sub-committees 
for carrying out that plan, and devising means 
by which all necessary expenses should be pro- 
vided for. But the committee were not under 
the necessity of acting alone. The officers of 
the Church, its Session and Trustees, and the 
members of the congregation generally, entered 
into the work most heartily. To the ladies 



INTRODUCTION. 



5 



particularly thanks are due for the successful 
manner in which most of the arrangements 
were carried out. It was by them that money 
was collected, that bountiful entertainment 
was prepared, and numberless efforts made for 
the welcome reception of all friends who might 
come to share in the festivities of the joyous 
occasion. So completely were all the arrange- 
ments made, and with so much unanimity did 
all enter into the matter, that from first to last 
there was not one serious disappointment, and 
not one thing to disturb the perfect harmony 
and good feeling. All looked forward hope- 
fully to the important occasion, but the success 
which attended its observance went far bej^ond 
the expectations of any. 

When the day arrived the w r eather itself 
was propitious. The days before had been 
stormy — those which followed were cold and 
gloomy. But upon this day the sun rose 
cheerfully, and the air of early May was mild 
and balmy. It seemed as if Providence was 
smiling upon us even in this respect. An 

almost Sabbath calm prevailed. The serene 

1* 



6 



INTRODUCTION. 



atmosphere and joyous sunshine tempted all 
abroad, and spread over all a feeling of cheer- 
fulness. 

Outside of the Church, which stood upon 
the ground that had been devoted to the 
worship of God for an hundred years, all was 
calm, and bright, and inspiring. Never had 
its old trees looked down upon happier hearts 
than upon the hundreds who were gathering 
into the house of God that morning. Inside 
of the Church there was felt to be an almost 
sacred satisfaction by every one that entered. 
The simple, yet most appropriate and impres- 
sive decorations which covered the walls and 
hung from the ceiling, the fragrance emitted from 
wreaths and flowers, and the hearty words of 
welcome filled all with surprise and pleasure. 
The adornments were not elaborate, but they 
were beautiful in their simplicity and in the 
suitable thoughts they were calculated to 
awaken. On the platform which extended 
across the pulpit end of the church there were 
two wide-spreading century plants emblema- 
tic of the great occasion. Spanning the pulpit, 



INTRODUCTION. 



7 



on the wall, in letters of evergreens, was the 
sublime and fitting text. — " Thou hast been 
our dwelling-place in all generations." Before 
this text stood conspicuously the figures, 1770 
— after it 1870. Noble festoons of laurel, 
ivy, and cedar sprang down from the four 
corners of the ceiling, and were looped up 
together at its centre. Wreaths surrounded 
the gas brackets around the walls, from which 
also were suspended fragrant hanging baskets 
of flowers. Flowers, as fresh and beautiful as 
that May morning, were on the pulpit, on the 
platform, in the garlands which wreathed the 
gallery, wherever the eye could turn. The 
purest sense was gratified, the sweetest thoughts 
awakened. 

Previous to the anniversary there was much 
speculation as to whether a large attendance 
could be secured on a clay in the middle of the 
week ; but as the hour of the morning exer- 
cises arrived all anxiety on that score dis- 
appeared. The house soon began to fill. In 
the afternoon it was crowded. In the evening 
very many could not find room to enter. It 



8 



INTRODUCTION. 



was a most inspiring scene, as the cars brought 
load after load of friends from the city, as car- 
riages drove in from all the surrounding 
country, and as the streets in every direction 
were alive with persons coming to join our 
happy celebration. Many persons came from 
a distance who themselves in former days had 
worshipped in the Church, or whose ancestors 
and other relatives had been connected with 
it. Members of families long separated came 
together in the spot hallowed to them all. 
Friends who, in former days, Sabbath after 
Sabbath, had gone up to the old Church in 
company, now met once more on earth, before 
the days of their pilgrimage were ended. 
Representatives of old families of the Church 
came home again, some of them from distant 
States. At the joyous re-union how many 
sacred old associations were revived ! how 
many hallowed remembrances of the past were 
brought up ! how many sacred scenes were re- 
vived, and fixed still more indelibly on mem- 
ory ! how many dear names were spoken of 
which were once cherished on earth, but now 



INTRODUCTION. 



9 



recorded in the General Assembly and Church 
of the First-born above ! Besides those who 
were thus drawn together by the precious 
memories and associations of the past there 
were also large numbers of others present. 
All the denominations of the community 
were largely represented. On the platform 
there were ministers of the various churches, 
United Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Epis- 
copalian and others. Clergymen and other 
distinguished visitors, including the Mayor of ' 
the city and judges of the courts, honored us 
with their presence. Such a concourse of 
honored names had probably never been gath- 
ered together on one occasion in Frankforcl. 

It was a great source of pleasure to the 
Committee having the celebration in charge, 
that they were able to secure the services of 
such eminent men as speakers for the occasion. 
Most kindly and promptly did they consent to 
be present, and lend their aid. It was also 
highly gratifying that all those who had en- 
gaged to deliver the addresses, save two, were 
enabled to attend. Hon. J. Ross Snowden, 



10 



INTRODUCTION. 



whose father, in olden times, had often 
preached in the church, was prevented by sick- 
ness. The Rev. Henry W. Biggs, son of one of 
the former pastors, was also providentially pre- 
vented from being present. The addresses 
were in every respect such as to give the high- 
est satisfaction. They were listened to with 
the deepest interest by the vast audiences who 
were present morning, afternoon, and evening. 
They touched upon almost every point that 
was appropriate to the Centennial Anniversary 
of a Presbyterian Church, and of this Church 
in particular. It was fortunate that, through 
the skill of an excellent phonographer, the Rev. 
S. M. Stiles, of the Methodist Church, these 
addresses have been preserved so fully; and 
that they may thus be handed down in this 
volume. 

The music of the occasion was not its least 
attractive feature. Conducted entirely by the 
Church's own choir, the expressions of satisfac- 
tion it called forth from every quarter were ail 
the more gratifying. The choir entered fully 
into the spirit of the day. This they could 



INTRODUCTION. 



11 



well do, for the Church was dear to them, as it 
had been to many of their fathers. This 
hearty love for the cause gave zeal in the selec- 
tion of the music, and inspired life and excel- 
lency in the sacred songs with which the exer- 
cises of the day were diversified. Most ani- 
mating were the moments w r hen some dear old 
tunes, uttering words hallowed to the children 
of God, were joined in by the vast assemblage, 
and filled the whole house with the sounds of 
praise. 

As it is desirable that all the prominent 
events of the day should be fixed upon record, 
there must be mention made of the abundant 
entertainment which had been provided. This 
was, of course, the work of the ladies. With 
taste and zeal they had planned for receiving, 
with the most generous hospitality, all friends 
who might come up to the great assembly. It 
was believed that large numbers of strangers 
would come to spend the happy day with us, 
and nothing was left undone which it was sup- 
posed would add to the heartiness with which 
they would be welcomed. The expenses neces- 



12 



INTRODUCTION. 



sary for this provision were contributed most 
cheerfully. Though over one thousand dollars, 
in money, and in the estimated value of arti- 
cles donated, were required, there was no diffi- 
culty in collecting enough — yea, more than 
enough. So great was the enthusiasm that 
there should be no deficiency in the hospitality, 
that an overflowing abundance was offered 
without any urgency of application. Dinner 
and tea were provided, and all comers were 
invited to partake in the festivities of the day. 
The Sabbath-school room of the Church was 
furnished with elegance and true taste for the 
cheerful gathering. Five tables extended the 
length of the room, and were fairly ablaze 
with shining plate, with brilliant flowers, and, 
above all, with the savory and substantial 
dishes with which they were loaded. Course 
after course of guests filled these tables, and 
made the whole scene most animated and 
cheering. It was estimated that not less than 
fifteen hundred individual repasts were par- 
taken of, and still there were preparations for 
more. Of all the pleasure furnished by this 



INTRODUCTION. 



13 



entertainment, there was none so great as that 
of the fair entertainers, who doubly rejoiced in 
the enjoyment of their friends. 

As a part of the history of this celebration, 
we give extracts concerning it from some of 
the journals of the day, whose editors or 
reporters were present. A desire to preserve 
it as fully as possible for the future may apolo- 
gize for retaining the reference to the historical 
address read on the occasion, which perhaps 
good taste required to be omitted. 

The editor of " The Presbyterian," the Rev. 
Matthew B. Grier, D. D., who was present on 
the occasion, and took part in the exercises, 
gave this account of it in the next issue of 
that paper : — 

" A very bright and pleasant day was Wednesday, the 
4th inst, the day of the centennial anniversary of the 
Frankford Presbyterian Church. The Church was gar- 
landed w T ith evergreens and gay with spring flowers. On 
the walls were ' 1770 — 1870/ indicating the years 
through which the church's life had run, and with them 
words of Scripture most appropriate to the time and 
place. ' Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all genera- 
tions.' A large platform extended entirely across the 



14 



INTRODUCTION. 



eastern end of the church, on which was seated a large 
number of ministers of our Church and some of other 
denominations. At the other end of the church was the 
choir, with the organ, which varied the services by appro- 
priate music throughout the day. 

The services of the Anniversary were divided into 
three parts, and the morning, afternoon and evening were 
thus occupied. The introductory address was made by 
the Rev. Dr. Musgrave, and the historical address, con- 
taining a resume of the events which had marked the 
church's life for the century just past, by the Rev. 
Thomas Murphy, who has been for twenty years the use- 
ful and beloved pastor of the church. This address, 
which was the chief feature of the exercises of the morn- 
ing, was undoubtedly one of the finest historical sketches 
we have ever heard. Much labor had been expended 
upon it, but this appeared only in the exactness and ful- 
ness of statements in regard to the events of the church's 
history. The style of the address was admirable; and 
though the reading lasted one hour and a half, it was lis- 
tened to without weariness to the close. Five well defined 
periods were described as belonging to the history of the 
church, and in each of these some marked and salient 
event was used, around which the other events of the 
period were grouped. We were surprised to find that for 
the first thirty-two years of its existence the church had 
belonged to the German Reformed body, and joined the 
Presbyterian Church in 1802. The names and services of 



INTRODUCTION. 



15 



many of the pastors, particularly of the Rev. Mr. Doak 
and the Rev. Dr. Biggs, now departed, were made sub- 
jects of special mention. The names of those who had 
served as elders and trustees in the church were carefully 
noted. Very few of our churches, which have reached 
the age of one hundred years, will have as full and accu- 
rate a history as that which has been so finely written of 
the Church in Frankford by its pastor. 

In the afternoon, the Rev. Dr. William D. Howard, of 
Pittsburg, Pa., who was pastor of the Church at Frank- 
ford from 1838 to 1849, gave his reminiscences, which 
were very interesting. He described the old Church as it 
was when he assumed the pastorate, the Church that was 
removed to make room for the present fine structure. 
He paid a hearty and affectionate tribute of praise to 
some of those who labored with him in the gospel, and 
who stood fast by the Church in its low estate, but who 
have gone to the assembly and church of the first-born 
in heaven. After Dr. Howard came addresses from Dr. 
Hodge and Dr. McCosh, of Princeton, who had come to 
join in the pleasant services of the day, and who spoke 
with much force and aptness. 

In the evening addresses were made by the Rev. Dr. 
Beadle and Judge Allison, of Philadelphia, and Dr. 
John Hall, of Xew York ; but these we were not so for- 
tunate as to hear. Thus ended, amidst joy and congratu- 
lation, the well-devised and well-ordered proceedings of 
this important era in the history of the Frankford 



16 



INTRODUCTION. 



Church. May the close of the century upon which it has now 
entered find it in abundant prosperity ; the centre, as now, 
of good influences, and the home of many precious souls. 

We must not forget to add that the hospitalities ex- 
tended by the Church to the strangers who were drawn by 
the attractive services of the day to Frankford, were 
generous and hearty. The ladies of the Church had pro- 
vided dinner and tea, and gave their guests such a boun- 
ful entertainment that, we doubt not, many of them 
wished that they could see their fair entertainers oftener 
than once in a century. And the only shade of regret 
which steals in on such occasions, comes with the thought 
that when the anniversary arrives again, all the faces 
which looked so bright and happy last week, will have 
vanished from the earth, and all the voices that spoke or 
sang be silent on earth forever. Blessed be God for the 
hope that all will at last be gathered where the wor- 
shippers do not separate, and where the generations that 
have successively filled one Church on earth will sing 
together of the loving-kindness of the Lord, and praise 
Him who has been the dwelling-place of his people in all 
generations." 

The next extract is from the " Reformed 
(German) Church Messenger." This notice of 
the event is valuable, as coming from a lead- 
ing journal of that body with which the 
Church was originally connected. 



INTRODUCTION. 



17 



"A very interesting series of religious exercises was 
held in the Frankford Presbyterian Church on the 4th 
inst. They were participated in by a large number of 
Presbyterian clergymen, to whom was added Judge Alli- 
son of this city. It was the centennial celebration of the 
laying of the corner-stone of the first Church. The pro- 
ceedings possess more or less interest for members of the 
Reformed church, in view of the early ecclesiastical rela- 
tions of the congregation. 

The pastor, the Rev. Thomas Murphy, presented a full 
and interesting history of the Church from its commence- 
ment to the present day. As is known to some of our 
more aged ministers, this Church was organized and sus- 
tained as a Reformed church for a number of years, but 
eventually passed over into the Presbyterian church, as 
did some others in otter sections of the church, about 
the same time and at a later period, in consequence of the 
introduction of the English language into the services, to 
which our early German ministers manifested a marked 
degree of hostility. The transition, in some instances, 
was made, not only with their full approbation, but even 
at their suggestion. How far this applies to the present 
case, our sources do not authorize us to assert positively. 
The transition, however, was at least more legitimate and 
justifiable, than are some effected at a later day. 

According to the historical statement of the pastor, 
which, as far as our knowledge extends, is correct, the 
corner-stone of the original building was laid on the 4th 

2* 



13 



INTRODUCTION. 



of May, 1770. During the first thirty-two years of its 
connection with the Synod of the German Reformed 
church, the services were conducted exclusively in the 
German language. In 1802 the English language was 
introduced, and some few years later, we presume soon 
after the close of the services of its last pastor, connected 
with the Reformed church, the Rev. John William Run- 
kel, in November, 1805, the congregation passed over to 
the Presbyterian church." 

The next extracts are from " The Holmes- 
burg Gazette/' penned by its editor, Mr. W. F. 
Knott. We omit his very full account of the 
addresses, and give only a few paragraphs de- 
scriptive of the more general exercises. 

" Last Wednesday was a day in the history of Frank- 
ford, that will long be remembered by its citizens as the 
occasion of the Centennial Anniversary of the Presbyte- 
rian Church. For some time past this event was looked 
forward to with an interest that knew no abatement until 
the occasion itself should arrive, and the good work be 
duly consummated. As if acting in concert, the weather 
was all that could be desired — clear, cool and pleasant. 
The fine rain of the evening previous served to purify the 
atmosphere, and lay the dust in the streets, thus enabling 
strangers w 7 ho had been drawn to Frankford to partici- 
pate in this event to enjoy, during the Tecess of the ses- 
sions, a promenade along its thoroughfares. 



INTRODUCTION. 



19 



The interior of the Church was most beautifully deco- 
rated. From each of the gas brackets hung suspended a 
magnificent basket of rich and luxurious plants, while, 
from the ceiling of the recess in the rear of the pulpit, 
hung suspended a large, and elegantly arranged bouquet 
of flowers, — a credit to the fair fingers that weaved it 
together in so artistic a manner. At each end of the 
platform was placed a fine specimen of the " Century " 
plant, seeming so appropriate with the day itself. In the 
centre of the ceiling was fastened a large wreath of ever- 
green, which threw out long streamers in various direc- 
tions, while the walls over the windows were festooned 
with the same materials. 

Long before the hour announced for the commence- 
ment of the morning session, the large building was filled 
by a large and intelligent audience, who seemed desirous 
of taking part in the interesting exercises of the day. The 
platform was filled by eminent clergymen of the Presby- 
terian Church, and others holding official connection 
therewith. 

At the close of Mr. Murphy's address another anthem 
was sung by the choir, after which the Rev. Henry W. 
Beggs pronounced a Benediction. The announcement 
was now made to the large audience assembled, that the 
ladies of the Church had prepared a dinner for those who 
chose to partake of it. The lecture-room had been 
handsomely fitted up for these festival purposes. Five 
long tables were erected, each of which would accommo- 



20 



INTRODUCTION. 



date on an average forty-five persons. These tables were 
covered with everything that the fancies of the lady 
managers could suggest, in the shape of excellently pre- 
pared edibles, and which it is needless for us to say was 
liberally patronized. It was thought that about six hun- 
dred took dinner, while the kind offer of the ladies to 
furnish supper was accepted by about one thousand per- 
sons. 

During the recess that intervened between the after- 
noon and evening sessions, the streets of Frankford were 
made to assume quite a lively appearance by the prome- 
nade of many of the friends in attendance at the Church. 
Stepping into the room, previously referred to as being 
fitted up by the Society for the entertainment of their 
guests, the same magnificent sight met the eye as was 
observable at the noon-day meal — tables handsomely 
decorated with flowers, and heavily freighted with sub- 
stantial tokens of good-will and esteem. We must be 
pardoned for saying here that we think for courtesy, 
kindness and liberality, the ladies of Frankford are un- 
excelled. We could not help wishing that their future 
lives might be full of happiness, and that they might be 
spared to entertain their friends upon future occasions. 

" Lord, Dismiss us with Thy Blessing," was sung by the 
choir and congregation, after which the Benediction was 
pronounced, and the large assemblage began to disperse, 
happy at the thought that they had been participants in 
an Anniversary held under such auspicious circumstances. 



IX TROD UCTION. 



21 



We cannot close our somewhat imperfect sketch of the 
Proceedings of this Anniversary without making special 
reference to the perfect manner in which the event was 
managed in all its details. The committee all seemed to 
have done their work admirably — laboring together in 
harmony, and determined to spare no pains to make the 
visit of their friends an interesting one. We feel sure 
that all who participated in this Centennial Anniversary 
will long remember the occasion, and regret that such a 
thing comes but once in a hundred years. " 

Most of the daily papers of the city had full 
reports of the Centennial ; we give the opening 
and closing paragraphs of one of the most com- 
plete of them — that contained in " The Press." 

" At an early hour a rejoicing throng began pouring 
into the beautiful Church structure, at the corner of Main 
and Church streets, and at the opening of the exercises 
the Church was filled in every part. The interior of the 
Church was beautifully decorated. From the ceiling and 
upon every wall graceful festoons depended: numerous 
hanging baskets were hung at short distances from each 
other, while a large number of potted tropical plants, 
exquisite bouquets, and vases of cut flowers rendered the 
scene one of great beauty. 

The platform was occupied by prominent clergymen 
and others invited to participate in the interesting exer- 
cises of the day. 



22 



INTRODUCTION. 



The music was rendered by a large choir in an excel- 
lent manner, the selections being made with great taste 
and a due regard for the jubilant character of the occa- 
sion. 

At the conclusion of these eloquent addresses, of which 
w 7 e can only give the foregoing scanty abstract, the 
audience was dismissed with the benediction, and dispersed 
full of the best and happiest feelings, and greatly impressed 
with the golden truths which they had caught from the 
lips of the denomination's greatest champions. 

We cannot conclude this report without special men- 
tion of the great courtesy shown us by the Committee on 
the celebration, who fairly overwhelmed us with their 
warm hospitalities and ministrations to our comfort 
during the protracted stay which the occasion demanded. 
We append the names of the members of this committee : 
Reuben Myers, chairman ; Joseph Ball, secretary ; Lin- 
ford Castor, treasurer; Alfred H. Foster, John McMullin, 
William E. Hamill, Frederick K. Womrath, Eudolph 
Adams, Samuel Wakeling, Howard Yonker, and James 
C. Thompson." 

Such was this memorable day in the exis- 
tence of the Presbyterian Church of Frank- 
ford. It is no wonder that the whole commu- 
nity was alive and excited by the occasion. It 
is no wonder that, on every hand, from those 
who entered heartily into it, was heard the 



IX TROD UCTION. 



23 



assertion. " It was the happiest day I ever 
spent." It was a day that never can be for- 
gotten. Not onlv in the event which it cele- 
brated. but also in its own successful and 
happy occurrences, it was one clay of a cen- 
tury. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



Morning Services, 10 A. M. 



REV. MATTHEW B. GRIER. D. D., PRESIDING. 



I. 

INVOCATION. 

BY THE REV. JOSEPH BEGGS. 

TT^E would worship and adore thee, O God, as the 
y ) self-existent, the independent, and the ever- 
blessed God. Thou hast been our dwelling-place in 
all generations. We thank thee this morning for thy 
wondrous mercy and grace to thy church ; and espe- 
cially would we thank thee for thy goodness and thy 
mercy to this particular church. We thank thee for 
all that thou hast done for us ; and. as we come here 
to-day to worship and to talk of the things pertaining 
to thy kingdom, we pray that thine especial presence 



26 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



and thy blessing may be with us ; that every thing 
that may be done this day shall redound to the - pro- 
motion of thy great glory and to the advancement of 
the Redeemer's kingdom upon the earth. We pray 
that thou wouldst be with us when singing the songs 
of Zion, and grant that, notwithstanding the sins and 
the imperfections that cling to our nearest approaches 
unto thee, the words of our mouths and the medita- 
tions of our hearts may be acceptable in thy sight, 
O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. 

% . 

II. 

HYMN. 

READ BY THE REV. JAMES PRICE, 

PASTOR OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF FRANKFORD, 

AND SUNG BY THE CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. 

All people that on earth do dwell, 

Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, 
Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell, 

Come ye before Him and rejoice. 

Know that the Lord is God indeed, 

Without our aid He did us make ; 
We are His nock, He doth us feed, 

And for His sheep, He doth us take. 



OF FRANKFORD. 



enter then His gates with praise, 
Approach with joy His courts unto ; 

Praise, laud, and bless His name always, 
For it is seemly so to do. 

Because the Lord our God is good, 

His mercy is for ever sure ; 
His truth at all times firmly stood, 

And shall from age to age endure. 



III. 

READING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

BY THE REV. W. E SCHENCK, D. D. 

PSALM XLTIII. 

1. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our 
God, in the mountain of his holiness. 

2. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount 
Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. 

3. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. 

4. For lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. 

5. They saw it s and so they marvelled ; they were troubled, 
and hasted away. 

6. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman 
in travail. 

7. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. 

S. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord 
of hosts, in the city of our God : God will establish it forever. 
Selah. 



28 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



9. We have thought of thy loving kindness, God, in the 
midst of thy temple. 

10. According to thy name, God, so is thy praise unto the 
ends of the earth : thy right hand is full of righteousness. 

11. Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be 
glad, because of thy judgments. 

12. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the tow- 
ers thereof. 

13. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that ye 
may tell it to the generations following. 

14. For this God is our God forever and ever: he will be our 
guide even unto death. 

PSALM CXXII. 

1. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the 
house of the Lord. 

2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, Jerusalem. 

3. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together : 

4. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the 
testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the 
Lord. 

5. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the 
house of David. 

6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that 
love thee. 

7. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy 
palaces. 

8. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, 
Peace be within thee. 

9. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy 
good. 



t 



OF FRAXKFORD. 



29 



IV. 
PKAYEK. 

BY THE KEY. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, D. D. 

Almighty and ever-living God, we desire now to 
enter into thy heart-searching presence, to draw near 
unto thee, our Father in heaven, to praise thee for the 
mercies of thy hand, humbly to confess our great 
unworthiness, to tell thee of all our wants, and to 
entreat thy forgiveness, and the abundant bestowal of 
all the precious mercies that thou knowest we need for 
the life that now is, and for a full and gracious pre- 
paration for the life that is to come. O Lord, our 
God, we entreat thee, lift now our hearts up unto thee 
in humble trust, in the exercise of a spirit of faith 
that realizes thy presence, that recognizes the faithful- 
ness of thy character, as well as the freeness of mercy 
that thou dost vouchsafe unto thy people. Put away 
all will-worship ; put away out of our hearts, we 
beseech thee, everything that is cold, that is formal, 
and lead us now to thy throne in the spirit of thy 
children; and help us, Lord, to have communion with 
thee, our Father, such as shall refresh and strengthen 
our souls. 

We bless thee that thou, who hast created us, who 
dost hate all sin and abhor all iniquity, yet in mercy 

8* 



I 



30 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



hast spared us, not only to crown us with the blessings 
needful for the present life, but also to bestow upon us 
the blessing of thy gospel, yea all the provisions of 
the covenant ordered in all things and sure. We bless 
thee, Almighty God, that in consequence of this, the 
arrangement of thy grace, the lost race of the family 
of man has heard the tidings of salvation. We bless 
thee that the gospel has reached us ; and though our 
fathers have rebelled against thee, though we have 
been undutiful and rebellious likewise, yet Lord, didst 
thou cheer them and bless us with thy precious word, 
with the organization of a church in the midst of us 
and our generations ; and thou, Lord, art still con- 
tinuing unto us this precious treasure, giving us so 
richly, so continuously, to enjoy all that thy w T ord 
doth hold forth unto thy believing people. 

We praise thee, Almighty God, that in the days 
that are past thou didst organize a church in this 
place. We recognize thy mercy unto the fathers that 
have gone hence ; and we praise thee for all the light 
thou didst give unto them in their day ; for the man- 
ner in which thou didst direct and sustain them in thy 
service; for all the grace given unto them in cheering 
them, in looking forward to the realities of eternity. 
We adore and magnify thy name that thou art still 
present from day to day, blessing thy servants, giving 



I 



OF FRANKFORD. 



31 



thy blessing, and causing this church and congrega- 
tion still to be a living witness for thee. O Lord, our 
God, we entreat thee, have mercy, and pour out the 
abundance of thy blessing upon thy servants that 
labor in this place ; upon the pastor, as every Sabbath 
he may proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ ; 
upon the eldership appointed to uphold his hands; 
upon all the membership of the church, that one and 
all may love, fear and serve thee, as it is their duty to 
do ; give them, abundantly, we pray thee, the wisdom 
that is from above. Strengthen thou the heart of the 
pastor when difficulties seem to lie in his path ; give 
him all the strength he requires for the ministry unto 
which thou hast called him. Let him never labor in 
his own wisdom or power, but bring him from Sab- 
bath to Sabbath to this place endued with the Holy 
Ghost, and let the gospel be accompanied with the 
mighty power of God ; so shall it be effectual to 
enlighten, to convince, to convert, to build up and to 
prepare the people for glory. May his soul be 
cheered and sustained, and during all the days of his 
pilgrimage may he in his soul feel that God is merci- 
ful, and that he is blessing him and the labor to 
which he has been called. 

May thy servants, the eldership in this place, be 
men of prayer, of great wisdom, of much kindness 



82 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



and gentleness, loving their pastor, loving and kind to 
all the people ; may they, united, be helps to the min- 
istry such as they ought to be. And may those that 
are in the membership of the church feed upon the 
gospel and grow in grace, and lay themselves out for 
godly service, doing the will and mind of God, as 
here taught from Sabbath to Sabbath ; may they live 
for God — not only with God, but for God — and so 
may they, in their day and generation, be a law unto 
all around them, commending the gospel to the world 
lying in sin and wickedness. 

We entreat thee, Lord, grant a gracious outpouring 
of thy Spirit from time to time upon thy servants in 
this city. Yea, may they all be baptized in their 
households, that their households may be Bethels ; 
may fathers and mothers be faithful to their covenant 
vows; may they see to it that in the discharge of 
every duty they have undertaken they shall look for 
the blessing, and wait and long for it, that when they 
go hence they may leave behind them households 
trained in faith and nurture of the Lord. 

We entreat thee, bless all connected with this 
church wherever the members or families may, in thy 
providence, have been carried; follow them with thy 
blessing ; direct them in all the work of their hands. 
And let thy blessing rest upon the pastors brought 



OF FRANKFORD. 



33 



together here, this day, on this interesting occasion. 
Thou knowest what we need ; thou, who hast called 
us unto thy service, who hast put us into the vine- 
yard, Lord, Lord, thou searcher of the hearts of the 
children of men, thou who goest through Jerusalem 
as with lighted candles, and knowest every thought 
and feeling of thy people's souls, knowest our difficul- 
ties, our weaknesses, when and why we faint in thy 
service; oh ! let thine arm uphold, let thine hand lead 
us, let thy grace enrich our souls, and leave us not, 
Lord, to yield or faint under the difficulties of our 
ministry, but let thy blessing from day to day descend 
upon us, that as our duties are we may have strength 
from thee. Bless those to whom we minister; add 
many to their number of such as believe. Help us, 
Lord, that w T e may be faithful in all the duties to 
which we are called ; and so may thy cause abun- 
dantly prosper in our hands. Let thy blessing rest 
upon all that from our church are going forth to the 
desolations of this mighty land, that they may feel that 
God is with them in the labor to which they have de- 
voted themselves. Give them wisdom and strength for 
their mission, and be helpful unto them from day to 
day, and so may thy cause mightily prosper and prevail. 

We would carry upon our hearts to thy footstool 
our brethren who have gone to the heathen. Thou 



34 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



knowest all that they feel when they look out upon 
the millions around them, engrossed with the world, 
living in its lust, burdened with its sin, and yet dark, 
and cold, and dead, and unbelieving ! Father, we 
pray thee sustain them in the work to which they 
have given themselves. Remember, Lord, thy agony 
of Calvary; remember the covenant, the promise; let 
the time soon come when the heathen shall indeed be 
given to Christ, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
be his for a sure possession. 

Hold not back, Lord, the blessing from thy servants 
because of the prayerlessness, the unbelief and apathy 
in the Church in this and other lands ; and when thy 
servants, that have gone in obedience to thy call, 
remember how little sympathy is felt, how little 
interest is displayed, by those who have professed 
to be thine, let not their hearts faint, but carry them 
on in their duty, and give them thy blessing, we 
beseech thee ; and let the evidence that thou art the 
same, blessing the world by the agency appointed — 
the evidence that thou art still faithful and gracious, 
awake the Church to a clearer view of its great high 
mission to evangelize the world. Hasten the time when 
thy Church, thus awakened, shall be altogether glorious, 
and thy people in every land shall address themselves 
to the work of making known the blessed gospel of God. 



OF FRAXKFORD. 



35 



We entreat thee be very merciful unto us; forgive 
our offences ; wherein we do that we ought not to do, 
deal not with us as we provoke thee. Wash us in the 
blood that cleanseth from sin; keep us in thy fear; be 
helpful according to the cries of our necessities ; and 
enable us to live so that when we pass hence, we may 
have a clear title and abundant meetuess for the rest 
and inheritance of Jesus. 

And now we commit unto thee the sick and afflicted. 
We pray for all that are in tribulation and distress ; 
we commend unto thee the dying, those who are now 
near to Jordan ; oh, that their eyes may be enlightened, 
that doubts, and apprehensions, and fears, may pass 
away, and that with the soul strengthened and the 
spirit waiting, they may be enabled to say, " I know 
whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is 
able to keep that which I have committed unto him 
against that day ; " and so, Lord, from pain, and 
weakness, and fainting, may they pass unto the better 
land and behold Him who has loved them and washed 
them in his blood. 

Thus, Lord, we pray thee, bless us, yea, each of us; 
and when the time shall come that we shall feel the 
dissolution of nature, then may the Lord be very 
precious, and may our souls be filled with the peace of 
God that passcth all understanding; and when the eye 



36 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



shall be closed in death, may our souls awake in the 
New Jerusalem, and there be prepared for joining in 
the song of Moses and the Lamb, " Unto him that 
loved us and washed us." All that we ask is for 
Jesus' sake. Amen. 



V. 

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

BY THE REV. GEORGE W. MUSGRAVE, D. D., LL. D. 

My Christian friends, I accepted promptly the invita- 
tion of the pastor to be present on this occasion, be- 
cause I knew that it was not likely I should be asked 
to take any part in the second centennial anniversary 
of this church; so it was now or never. But, aside 
from that, it is some gratification to meet with Chris- 
tian people on such an occasion as this, so rare at least 
in this new country of ours. How few churches there 
are in this land that can celebrate their first centenary 
anniversary ! The great majority of our churches 
have been organized within half a century, and 
multitudes of them are not yet out of their teens ; 
and some that existed a long while ago have become 
extinct, and are known only in their brief, and, in 
some respects, melancholy history. I know it is hard 



OF FRANKFORT). 



37 



to kill a Presbyterian Church, it is such a sturdy 
plant ; and yet we must acknowledge that some few 
have died, and then others again have so changed 
their character and location that their identity seems 
to be almost lost. You can hardly believe that the 
churches that once stood at certain points are the same, 
now in the distance. Not only is the location changed, 
but also there are very few of the descendants of the 
men who organized the church and nursed it in its 
infancy to be found; but here we celebrate the cen- 
tenary anniversary of a church that occupies, not 
precisely the same building to be sure, for this beau- 
tiful house is comparatively new, but the same old 
site. Here we stand upon the same hallowed ground 
where our fathers erected their altars, and where per- 
haps among those who are now present, are those 
whose grandfathers knelt and worshipped our cove- 
nant God. 

I have sometimes regretted that our churches were 
not more stable in some respects; that the houses 
which are erected at the beginning should be so 
ephemeral, intended merely for a temporary occupation. 
How different it is in the Old Country! There you 
see the venerable piles that have stood for centuries, 
and, in some instances, you have the name of the 
family on the pew-door, where generations successively 

4 



38 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



have worshipped God. Oh, what hallowed associa- 
tions are thus connected with the house of God ! 
How strong must be the tie that binds the family to 
such a sanctuary , when they go to the same slip that 
their fathers and grandfathers occupied, and the family 
name is engraven upon the plate at the entrance of the 
slips ! I say, I have sometimes regretted that we 
should have buildings so temporary in their character 
and use. I would that our sanctuaries were built for 
centuries, and that the people might come through 
successive generations to the same house, — the same 
families occupying the same pews. I think it would 
be a great gratification, and would have a moral influ- 
ence exceedingly precious. But of course, in this new 
country and with a population constantly shifting, 
we cannot have such stability as is witnessed in the 
fatherland. 

But it is not only exceedingly interesting to mem- 
bers of this church to come up here and celebrate 
their centenary anniversary, but it is grateful also to 
every Christian and to every enlightened people. We 
could not say this if the character of this church was 
different from what it is ; for there are some institu- 
tions called religious, some sects called Christians, that 
have no religion and no Christianity, and we would 
not only take no interest in celebrating the anniver- 



OF FRANKFORD . 



39 



sary of such a — church, shall I call it? — bur we 
would also conscientiously abstain from countenancing 
it. What Protestant would take any interest in the 
anniversary of a Papal. Socinian, or Unitarian Church? 
Xo, we rejoice on this occasion because we are cele- 
brating the anniversary of an evangelical church, 
an orthodox Presbyterian Church, holding the grand 
doctrines of the Reformation, the glorious truths of 
revelation, so honoring to God. so strengthening and 
comforting and sanctifying to God's people ; — truths 
which have been instrumental in the conversion and 
salvation of millions. Aye. it is because this church 
has maintained its doctrinal purity, its evangelical 
spirit, that we so rejoice at its centennial anniversary. 

How melancholy the history of some churches ! 
even those that were once orthodox. Alas! alas! 
even some of the churches in which Calvin preached 
and in which Luther ministered — where the reformers 
proclaimed the gospel, even in those very houses there 
are Socinianism and Rationalism proclaimed. And so 
in our own country, young as it is, in New England, 
in the city of Boston, some of those old churches once 
resounded with the pure doctrine of the trinity, the 
doctrines of the gospel, that are now corrupted into a 
low Unitarianism. Thank God that this Frankford 
Church, with others around here, has, for the century, 



40 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



maintained the truth as it is in Jesus ; and preserved 
its evangelical spirit. Oh, that is its glory ! that is 
primarily at what we rejoice on such an occasion as 
this. 

But it is a Presbyterian Church ; and not only as 
Christians, but, as I intimated, also as citizens, we 
rejoice in its continuance ; for Presbyterians have the 
old form, and through all the past ages have been the 
staunch friends and defenders of civil liberty. Why, 
all that this world now enjoys o f freedom it owes to 
the Presbyterian Church. Yes, what would Great 
Britain be to-day but for the Puritans and Calvin and 
the Presbyterian Scotch and Irish? Who does not 
know that our own government has been modeled 
after our Presbyterian government? We rejoice in 
the anniversary of such a church because we are 
patriots, and rejoice that as long as there is a Presby- 
terian Church on earth there will be one friend and 
champion of religious freedom. 

Moreover, we are interested in this anniversary too 
on account of the catholicity of the Presbyterian 
Church. This is another excellence of the Presbyte- 
rian denomination — that she is one of the most catho- 
lic of all her sister Protestant denominations. She 
recognizes every child of God as a Christian brother 
or sister. She recognizes ?very minister of Christ as 



OF FRANKFORD. 



41 



an ambassador of God. She does not unchurch any 
man that is a Christian. Why, even our Episcopal 
brethren must acknowledge that in this respect we 
have the advantage ; for. though we claim to have 
apostolic succession, and our Church association fairly 
represents the original form of the Christian Church, 
though we believe that our ordination is the most 
scriptural., and that Episcopal diocesans. Episcopal or- 
dinations are unwarranted in Scripture, yet we do not 
unchurch our Episcopal brethren. We would preach 
for them if they would ask us. We ask them into 
our pulpits, and sometimes thay do come ; we invite 
them to our communion-table — we do not exclude 
them, though they attempt to exclude us. 

By the way. I feel I must tell you an anecdote; 
shall I? Well, there was an Episcopal gentleman in 
Xew York, that frequently invited a Presbyterian 
in the neighborhood, to go and hear one of their 
distinguished clergymen, and he went ; then the Pres- 
byterian respectfully returned the compliment, and 
wanted his Episcopal friend to go and hear some 
distinguished Presbyterian minister ; he declined, 
saying, he did not recognize his friend's minister as 
having been lawfully ordained. A few weeks after, 
the Episcopal friend asked his Presbyterian neighbor 
to go with him again to hear a distinguished Episcopal 

4* 



42 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



preacher. " Why," said the Presbyterian, " I cannot 
do it, sir." Well, why not?" " Why, I cannot 
recognize that man's ministry." " Why not ? " 
" Because he has not been scripturally ordained." 
" Why, how so?" said the Episcopalian. "Why., 
sir," answered the Presbyterian, " I do not read in 
the Bible about bishops ordaining men, but I do read 
about the ordaining of men by the laying on of the 
hands of the presbytery ; and as that gentleman was 
not ordained by a presbytery, I cannot recognize the 
validity of his ordination." Well, that was turning 
the tables upon his friend. He ought to have known, 
however, that the Episcopalians very properly ordain 
by presbyteries after all. You never knew a bishop 
ordain a man single-handed ; he always has one or two 
presbyters to present the candidate and unite in the 
services ; and so, after all, it is ordination by the 
presbytery, and hence we can consistently recognize it 
as scriptural. 

And so it is with the Baptists. They insist upon it 
that a man must be immersed, otherwise he cannot 
come to the Lord's table. We believe affusion to be 
the scriptural mode ; we are sure of it, and know that 
for centuries it was the practice of the Church uni- 
versally ; nevertheless, we will not quarrel with our 
Baptist brethren ; we allow them to have their 



OF FRANKFORD. 



43 



opinion, practise as they think best, but we do not 
unchurch them ; we exchange pulpits with them 
whenever they let us, and invite them to the Lord's 
table with us though they will not let us come to 
theirs. In short the Presbyterian Church is one of 
the most liberal, catholic churches upon earth. While 
it maintains firmly its own doctrine and polity, it 
recognizes Christ's image anywhere, takes by the hand 
every true Christian, welcomes him to its bosom and 
communes with him. Yes, and as a people how ready 
we are to co-operate with all other evangelical sects ! 
Read the history of voluntaryism, and you will find 
Presbyterians, after all, are their main supporters. 
Your Bible, and Tract, and Sunday-school Union and 
what-not — where does the money come from but 
mainly from the Presbyterian Church ? And so she 
shows her liberality and her catholicity by bidding 
God-speed to all his people and heartily co-operating 
with them in every good work and word. 

jSTow, I say, a church so pure, so scriptural, so 
liberal and catholic, ought to command the warmest 
affection of every true patriot ; and hence this anni- 
versary gives us pleasure, because we may show our 
gratitude and thanksgiving to God that this good old 
church still exists and maintains its purity and gospel 
spirit. The Lord help you to maintain it. Re- 



44 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



member to-day you are making history. Did you 
hear it? You who are members of this church are 
every day, every year, making history for this 
church — for the next century will be, under God, very 
much what you make it. What shall its history be 
when its second centennial anniversary shall be ob- 
served ? Shall the orators on that occasion be able to 
commend this church for its continued fidelity? Shall 
the people of God rejoice that for two hundred years 
the church of Frankford has maintained its integrity ? 
I trust in God it will be so. Cultivate, then, the 
spirit of God's truth, the spirit of true holiness, the 
spirit of earnest piety. As members of this church 
take a holy pride in her history ; try to improve it, if 
practicable ; to make it still more distinguished and 
successful. God grant that when the second centen- 
nial anniversary arrives, the church then existing may 
be able to commend the church of Frankford for its 
fidelity to Christ and to his cause. 



VI. 

ANTHEM. 

" THE LORD IS KING." 

Chorus : 

The Lord is King, The Lord is King, 

The Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel. 



OF FRAXKFORD. 



45 



And girded Himself with strength. 

He hath made the round world so sure, that it cannot be moved 
Duett : 

Ever since, Ever since the world began, hath Thy seat been 
prepared. 

Ever since the world began, Thou art, from everlasting to 
everlasting. 

Bass Solo : 

The floods are risen, 
Lord, The floods lift up their voice, 
The floods lift up their waves, 
The waves of the sea are mighty, 
And rage horribly, 

But yet the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier. 

Eecitative Tenor : 
Thy testimonies Lord are sure, very sure. 

Chorus : 

Holiness, Holiness, becometh Thy house, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 



VII. 

HISTOEICAL ADDRESS. 

BY THE KEY. THOMAS MURPHY, PASTOR. 

Why do we celebrate this hundredth year of our 
Church, and write the history of the way in which 
God has led it? Because great is the gratitude we 



46 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



owe him for having kept in existence so long this 
branch of his Zion, and having favored it with such 
a measure of prosperity. Because the completion of 
a century of a church's history is a great event in 
itself — but a few times before has such an event oc- 
curred in this city. Because there is a wholesome 
curiosity that would carry us back into the past, and 
receives its highest gratification in tracing the foot- 
steps of those who have gone before. Because we owe 
too much to those who have sent down to us the 
heritage we now possess, to forget them in a short 
time. We would save their honored names from 
sinking into oblivion. We would speak of what they 
were and what they have done as the great roll of the 
centuries moves on. Because we would learn to prize 
more highly the blessing which has been given us in a 
church, with its ordinances unimpaired, its doctrines 
uncorrupted, and its testimony for the truth unbroken 
for a hundred years. And we would write this 
history, because from it we would receive a new and 
stronger impulse to preserve this Church, improve its 
privileges, and send down its blessings, in all their 
richness, to the generations that are coming. If there 
shall be some tediousness in detailing events and 
recording names, I am sure that the importance of the 
object in view will be a sufficient apology. I would 



OF FRANKFOBD. 



47 



then trace the ordering of God's providence, in the 
history of this Church, during the past hundred years. 
I would record the names of many of the honored ones 
who maintained its interests and shared its fortunes. 
I would mark the great epochs which measure its 
past journey. I would dwell upon its progress from 
the very smallest beginning, to what it is to-day. 

There are five well-marked periods in the hundred 
years' history of this Church, and by keeping these in 
mind it will be better understood and remembered. 

The first period was from the laying of the corner- 
stone of the original building on May 4th, 1770, until 
the year 1802. During these thirty-two years it was 
connected witli the German Reformed body, and its ser- 
vices were conducted mainly in the German language. 

The second period was from 1802 to 1809. This 
was a season of weakness and transition. During this 
period the Church passed from its original connection 
until it was completely organized as Presbyterian. 

The third period was from 1809 to 1831 — a space 
of twenty-two years — which embraced the pastorates 
of the Rev. John Doak and the Rev. Thomas Biggs. 

The fourth period extended from 1831 to 1838. 
During this short period of seven years the church 
was in an unsettled state, with several short pastorates. 

The fifth period was from 1838 until the present 



48 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



time. At that date the Rev. W. D. Howard com- 
menced his pastoral services ; and there have since been 
thirty-two years of quiet and uninterrupted progress. 

In tracing the history of the Church through these 
years we have as our guides, our records — -in the 
earlier periods very scanty, — the records of the Presby- 
tery of Philadelphia, the Baptismal and Marriage 
register of the old Market Square Church in German- 
town, the traditions of the past, the memory of the 
aged, and other unexpected sources of information. I 
must especially mention the assistance rendered me by 
Mr. John Deal, now the oldest elder and trustee of 
the Church. He has been most intimately connected 
with all its affairs for the last forty or fifty years, 
and his clear and affectionate remembrance of them 
has served as an invaluable guide in these years of its 
history. Consulting all these and comparing their 
various teachings we have probably gotten very near 
to the facts in most cases. 

It will give interest to this history to glance at the 
state of the community at the time when it originated. 
We cannot well understand its beginning without 
this. When the corner-stone of the old edifice was 
laid no railroad had ever been constructed, no steam- 
boat had ever floated. At that time no American ves- 
sel of any kind had ever sailed on Chinese waters; 



OF FRANKFORD. 



49 



At the time when its foundations were laid Europe was 
agitated by the division of Poland. In this country the 
British troops had just occupied Boston; mutterings 
of discontent with English rule were heard through- 
out the colonies. Patrick Henry, Adams, and Han- 
cock were beginning to promote the Revolution. 
Whitefield died the very year the corner-stone was 
laid, and Wesley was then in his prime. 

There was a bright array of English authors then 
penning their immortal works — -amongst them — Gold- 
smith, Johnson, Blackstone, Burke, Cowper, Burns 
and others. This city of Philadelphia had then but a 
very small population. It was not larger than 
Lancaster is to-day. Frankford has now two-thirds 
as many people as the whole city had then. All the 
churches in the city then were — four Presbyterian, 
three Episcopal, two Catholic, two Lutheran, and 
Methodist, Baptist, Moravian, German Calvinist, and 
Swedish Lutheran — each one. This was all — but two 
or three more than are in Frankford to-day. In 
Frankford itself there was then but one place of wor- 
ship — the old Friends' Meeting House — the second 
in the state — a wooden structure, which live years 
afterwards — in 1775 — gave place to the present brick 
building on Unity Street. 

It was in the midst of these years that our Church 
5 



50 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHURCH 

was founded. Its founders were, most of them, 
Swiss, from the city of Basle. A few of them were 
of the original German settlers of Germantown and 
all this region. They therefore commenced it as a 
German Calvinist, or German Reformed Church, with 
all its services and all its records in the German lan- 
guage. 

The only important document we have remaining 
to us of the first period — the period of thirty-two 
years — the period during which the Church continued 
German Reformed — is a sort of dedicatory record. 
It is in German. In order that its very spirit may 
remain, I will give it as it was translated by a Ger- 
man — in the exact idiom of the original. 

" In the name of the Holy Trinity. Amen. Whereas it has 
pleased the Almighty and All-wise God through His providence 
and His Holy Ghost, to inspire the following persons, viz : 
George Castor, Sr., Henry Eohrer, Sr., Rudolph NerT and Sirach 
Schudy to build a house for the glory of His holy Name : 
Therefore, these above-named persons, with their friends, have 
consulted together about the undertaking of this great work ; 
and the following persons, viz. : Frederick Castor, Rudolph 
Mawrerer, Jacob Zebly, Jacob Myer, have joined them to help 
with heart and hand and deed to carry out the above measure. 
The beginning of this was undertaken by the above-named 
persons, in the year of our Lord 1769, in the month of January 
in the purchase of a lot for a burial-ground. But after this 
through the help of God, and the many friends and patrons, 



OF FRANKFORD. 



51 



whose names will be found in the minute books, and to whom 
we and our successors will owe the most sincere thanks, it was 
resolved that a church should be built on the said burial- 
ground, and the work thereof was commenced in April, 1770. 

TVe can well affirm that the progress of this building was 
conducted in a desired manner, by the blessing of God, in great 
harmony, in a peaceful and untiring effort. On the fourth of 
May, in the same year, the corner-stone was laid by the Rev. 
Mr. Fcehring. Since the church is not entirely out of debt, as 
you will see in the minutes and records, as well as from the 
receipts of Rudolph Neff and Frederick Castor ; we therefore 
felt constrained to present a correct account and full statement 
of all, that our descendants and all who shall be interested 
might have a record which they could examine in the future. 
Wherefore, we say to those who will follow us, be careful and 
wise ; be on your guard — so that you may increase as well as 
enlarge your numbers ; and never get tired of keeping this 
building in good repair. We wish you therefore good success. 
' Jerusalem. Lift up your heads, ye gates : and be ye lifted 
up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall come in.' 
Now God Almighty, Creator of the universe, we commend to 
thee this house which we have built in thy holy name and for the 
glory of God. Keep m thy hands and protection those who 
shall meet in it. Destroy all false doctrines and all that is 
intended to destroy thy word. Give now and forever thy grace , 
peace and unity, and thine shall be the praise and thanks^ 
honor and glory, now and forever. Amen" 

This devout and very important document is 
written in a beautiful hand at the beginning of what 
was intended for a Book of Eecords ; but, alas, 



52 



THE PRESB YTERIAN CHURCH 



excepting some accounts, it is the last record made for 
thirty-two years, whilst the Church was German 
Reformed. We must pause to look at the honored 
names with which this Church originated : — George 
Castor, Rudolph Neff, Henry Rohrer, Sirach Shudy. 
Excepting the last, their descendants are still with us. 
The first is grandfather of another George Castor, to 
whom the Church is more indebted than to any other 
man. And with them were other names not to be 
forgotten, some of whose descendants are still promi- 
nent in the Church. Jacob Myer (now Myers), 
Rudolph Mowrer, Jacob Zebley, and Frederick 
Carster (now Castor), son of George. Their names 
must never be forgotten while this Church stands. It 
is believed that all these had either come from Swit- 
zerland or were of Swiss descent. We must also put 
on record the names of some others of those who by 
their contributions helped to erect the original edifice. 
Among them we find Samuel Neswinger, Rudolph 
Shutz, Leonard Froelich, Yost Myers, Jacob Madeira, 
Jacob Schmid, Jacob Mag, David Bleuh, Christopher 
Bender, Frederick Scheibly, George Wilkins, Edward 
Steils, Jacob Geisse, Leonard Kauffmann, Alexander 
Edwards, Ulric Neff, and a long array of other names 
which we must omit. All these helped the good work. 
It is curious to know the dimensions and the cost 



OF FRAXKFORD. 



53 



of the original building before it was enlarged in 
1810. The record of these is found in fragments of 
the old minutes still remaining. The church edifice, 
as it was first erected, was only forty feet wide and 
thirty feet long. That made it just about one-fourth 
as large on the floor as this building in which we are 
assembled. Even the specific cost of the various 
articles of its construction is preserved. As a 
curiosity I will name it here. 



or about two thousand four hundred dollars (§2,400). 

For thirty-two years after its commencement, or 
until 1802, we know T but very little indeed of the 
history of the Church. There were no records kept, 
or if there were, they are lost. One or two incidents 
loom up distinctly in the darkness. One is peculiarly 
interesting. During the Revolutionary War, after 
the battle of Trenton, some of the prisoners captured 
in that engagement were brought and for a time 

5* 



The stone, lime, sand, hair, and hauling.... 
Boards, planks, shingles, and other lumber. 

Paint, oil, glass, and painting 

Mason work and plastering 

Carpenter and cabinet work 

Blacksmith work and other incidentals 



£. s. d. 

,133 2 10 

,109 6 3 

, 27' 16 8 

, 64 16 

, 97 16 9 

, 28 17 5 



Whole cost of building when finished 



,461 15 11 



54 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



imprisoned in the old building. Of this fact there is 
no doubt. We were first made acquainted with it by- 
traditions lodging in the memory of the aged. But 
besides this, the Eev. D. S. Miller, D. D., of the 
Episcopal Church in this place, has kindly communi- 
cated the remarkable fact of his having examined a 
journal found lately in Hesse Cassel, Germany, which 
had been written by a Hessian officer, who was in the 
battle of Trenton, and was amongst the captured, and 
states that they were imprisoned for a time in a church 
of a little village called Frankfort above Philadelphia. 
Another interesting fact of that early day was that the 
old Lutheran Church on the corner of Church and 
Adams streets, was built by a few of the older 
Germans who broke off from this church, because the 
younger members insisted on having occasional ser- 
vices in the English language. 

But who were the ministers of this church during 
that first period of thirty-two years ? Tradition gave 
us the first clue. Old people told us that they had 
heard of the preachers in this church coming from Ger- 
man town. They recollected to have heard the names 
of Helffenstein and Hermann among these preachers. 
They told us of their fathers and mothers going to 
German town to be catechized. This sent us to exam- 
ine the records of the Market Square Church — the 



OF FRANKFORD. 



55 



old German Reformed Church of Germantown. We 
found their records to be mere registers of baptisms, 
deaths and- marriages. But if their preachers offici- 
ated at Frankford we ought to rind Frankford names 
among those baptisms and marriages. And that dis- 
covery, much to our satisfaction, we made. There we 
found the names of Xeffs, and Mowrers. and Zebleys, 
and Myers and Froelighs. This seemed to make the 
probability very strong. But another fact reduced it 
almost to a certainty. The minister who dedicated 
our old church building was the Bev. Mr. Foehring. 
Then, as the thirty-two years of darkness are broken 
in upon by the return of our records in 1802, we find 
a minute of a settlement made with the Bev. Tin. 
Rankle for his pastoral services. But in the German- 
town registers we find that the pastor of that church 
in 1770 was the Bev. Christian Frederick Foehring, 
and its pastor in 1802 was the Bev. Wm. Bunkle. 
Now, if the pastors of that church at the beginning 
and at the end of the period preached here, and if we 
have the other corroborative evidence already named, 
the conclusion is tolerably certain that the supplies for 
this church during all that period came from that 
source. 

This theory was afterwards confirmed when we dis- 
covered several works pertaining to the early ministers 



56 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



of the Dutch and German Reformed churches in this 
country ; among them, " The Fathers of the Reformed 
Church, by the Rev. H. Harbaugh," and U A Manual 
of the Reformed Church in America, by the Rev. 
Edward T. Corwan." From all these sources light is 
thrown upon that early period of the church, which 
makes it tolerably plain. Undoubtedly, then, the first 
minister of this church, and the one who laid the cor- 
ner-stone of its original edifice, a hundred years ago, 
was the Rev. Christian Frederick Foehring. His his- 
tory was a remarkable one. He was born in Hanover 
about the year 1736. His father died in the military 
service of that country, and his mother knew that if 
her son remained in his native country, he also would 
be compelled to enter the army. To avoid this, when 
the lad was seven years old, she tied him to her back, 
and, skating across the Rhine, escaped. With her son 
she finally reached German town, where they settled. 
Afterwards Mr. Foehring entered the ministry, and be- 
came eminent for his piety, talents and success. He 
preached in German, Dutch, and English. In 1779 he 
died of a cold caught in escaping from a party of British 
soldiers sent to capture him because of his zeal in be- 
half of liberty. Mr. Foehring supplied this church 
only a short period — probably from one to two years. 
He was succeeded in the church of Germantown by 



OF FRANKFORD. 



57 



the Rev. J. C. Albertus Helftenstein, who also undoubt- 
edly ministered to this church most of the time of his 
stay there. At first he remained but three years — from 
1772 to 1775. Then, after "a pastorate of four years 
in Lancaster, he returned in 1779, and remained ten 
years. Mr. Heltfenstein belonged to a family in which 
there has been a succession of ministers since the Re- 
formation. He was born in the Palatinate. While on 
his way to this country, a severe storm at sea led him 
to consecrate himself more entirely to the service of 
God. His sermons were very pointed and stirring, 
and his ministry was greatly blessed. Often, it is 
said, was his congregation overwhelmed by the mighty 
power of truth, as it flowed with majesty and ten- 
derness from his heart. He died of consumption in 
the year 1769. 

During part of the interval between 1775 and 1779, 
while Mr. Helffeostein was at Lancaster, the church 
was probably supplied by the Rev. Samuel Dubben- 
dorf, then pastor of the German Reformed Church of 
German town. He had come over from Europe as 
chaplain with the Hessian soldiers. But, afterwards 
" through the plunderings of the English soldiers, he 
lost nearly all he had, and amid terror, want and 
famine, saw all his satisfaction and comfort in tempo- 
ral things carried away as by a storm. " On this ac- 



58 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



count he left his field in Germantown and vicinity after 
a stay of about two years. Mr. Dubbendorf was a man 
tender and refined in his feelings, of strong affections, 
and greatly devoted to the work of the ministry. He 
was never married. Neither the date of his birth nor 
his age is recorded. 

Towards the latter part of Mr. Helffenstein's pastor- 
ate — in 1787 — we find, in an Act of Incorporation, 
that the Rev. Philip R. Pauli was minister of this 
church. It is probable that he became such in conse- 
quence of Mr. Helffenstein's declining health. Mr. 
Pauli was a native of Prussia, born in 1742. In that 
country he was fully educated, and came to America 
in 1783. Soon afterwards he took charge of the 
Academy of Philadelphia for six years. It was du- 
ring part of that time that he was minister of this 
church. Subsequently he became pastor of the Ger- 
man Reformed Church in Reading, Pa., which he 
served for a period of nearly twenty-two years. He 
was a superior linguist, a thoroughly educated man, 
and an active and faithful minister of the gospel. He 
died in 1815, amidst the deepest sorrow of the people 
to w 7 hom he had successfully ministered for so long a 
time. 

The next minister who officiated in the German- 
town and Frankford Churches was the Rev. Lebrecht 



OF FRANKFORD. 



59 



Frederick Hermann. His ministry commenced here 
about 1789 or 1790, and continued for twelve years. 
I have found old people who still remember him. In 
many respects he was a very remarkable man. He 
was a native of Germany, and the last of the German 
missionaries sent over to this country under the care 
of the Classis of Amsterdam. After leaving his 
charge here he preached in various places in Chester, 
Montgomery and Berks Counties. No less than five 
of his sons entered the ministry for which he had 
himself prepared them. During many of the last 
years of his life he was blind. He outlived all his 
early friends and fellow-laborers, and died in 1848 at 
the age of over eighty-four. Among his last w 7 ords 
were : " It is w f ell with me. I am nearing heaven — 
my body is very weak, and will soon be dissolved ; 
but Jesus, my Redeemer, will construct for me a 
glorified body from this mass of corruption/' 

The last of the German ministers who officiated 
here was the Rev. John William Runkle. He was 
pastor of the Germantown Church, but preached 
regularly here from the 1st of March, 1802, for a few 
years, until the Church passed gradually over to the 
Presbytery. He also was a native of Germany, came 
to this country when about fifteen, and died in 1832, 
at the age of eighty-four. He must have been a man 



60 THE PRESB YTERIAN CH UR CH 



of decided character, as has been described. " He 
was a man of strong physical constitution, tall and 
raw-boned in person. His powers of endurance were 
very great. He was venerable and patriarchal in 
appearance, excitable in temper, warm in preaching, 
in short, a 6 son of thunder/ " He was in advance of 
his time, and hence regarded somewhat as a fanatic. 
His preaching was evangelical, apt in illustration, and 
affectionate in appeal. He ever manifested much 
sympathy towards the suffering, visiting also prisoners 
and those under sentence of death. 

Such was the goodly array of men of God, most of 
them ministers sent from a distant land, under the 
care of the orthodox and pious Christians of Holland, 
who for a long time ministered in this venerable 
church. 

I must here state an interesting fact. The last 
name, recorded in the Baptismal Register of this 
Church before penning this history is that of a 
great-great-grand-child of that Rev. Mr. HelfFenstein 
who probably was the first permanent supply of the 
Church. That was by her mother; but by her father 
she is also the great-great-great-grand-daughter of the 
Neff who was one of the four originators of the 
Church. For this reason the name of little Catharine 
de Monseau Wakeling, daughter of Edmund de Monseau 



OF FRANKFORD. 



61 



Wakeling, shall be written in this history. I have 
further only to state the few names of the officers of 
the church during that long period which have come 
down to us. Of its elders we know of but four, viz. : 
Jacob Grandsback, the first on record, Rudolph Xeff, 
Conrad Axe, and George Castor, first elected to that 
office in 1801, and holding it still in 1844, when he 
died. We have, towards the close of the same period, 
the names of three deacons, viz. : John Myers, Daniel 
Peltz, and Henry Castor. All the trustees of whom 
we know are John Robrer, Rudolph Neff, Frederick 
Castor, Joseph Dearman, and Jacob Bener. And the 
old sexton appointed in 1799, and who held that office 
for twenty years, was George Eohrer. All these have 
passed away from earth. Not one of them remains. 
Only a few very aged persons, who were then little 
children, are now alive of all those who saw the first 
period of our Church. All the others rest from their 
labors and their works do follow them. 

The second period was a short one, but probably 
the most eventful one in our Church's outward his- 
tory. It extended from October 2d, 1802, until July 
18th. 1809 — only seven years. At the first of these 
dates the Presbytery of Philadelphia began to help 
the Church; at the second of them the Rev. John W. 
Doak was installed the first Presbyterian pastor. 

6 



62 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



This was, therefore, a period of weakness, of change, 
of transition. 

What were some of the events of the world occur- 
ring at that period? Napoleon Bonaparte was the 
great name sounding through the lands. The first 
locomotive engine was tried in 1804. Fulton's first 
trial of a steam-boat was made in 1807. Sunday- 
schools had been established but ten or twelve years 
before. The American Board of Foreign Missions 
did not come into existence until three years after- 
ward. Such was the age of the second period of our 
church. The Minutes of the Presbytery of Philadel- 
phia, October 2d, 1802, tell us — "It was represented 
that there are many people in the town of Frank ford 
who are destitute of the privileges of the gospel, and 
who are desirous of receiving it from the ministers of 
this Presbytery. And it was therefore ordered that 
the Rev. Messrs. Boyd, Milldoller, Linn, Potts and 
Janeway, each supply said people two Sabbaths before 
the next stated meeting of Presbytery, and make 
arrangements among them for that purpose." This 
was the first connection of Presbytery with the 
Church. It shows that the Church had sunk to a 
very low ebb. After this, five years pass, the Church 
still retaining its relation with the German Re- 
formed, but evidently in a very weak and struggling 



OF FRANKFORD. 



63 



state. At the close of the year 1802, the building 
was leased to what was called the Church Company, 
for every Sabbath except one in each month. That 
one was retained by the Church for its own ser- 
vices. The Company seems to have rented the house 
for the use of several other denominations. This 
lease was annulled three years afterwards. About 
1805 or 1806 the pulpit was frequently supplied 
by a Baptist minister by the name of Allison, who 
had charge of an academy. He preached with 
great acceptance. He was soon assisted in the aca- 
demy by another minister of the same denomina- 
tion called Montoney. He also frequently preached. 
But after a while a number of persons united with 
them, and in 1807 organized the Baptist Church, 
located formerly on Pine Street, now on Paul and 
t nity Streets, and which has since gone on and pros- 
pered until the present time. 

At first there were no pews in the church. For 
thirty seven years there was nothing but benches. 
But in the year 1807 by a great exertion, as the 
Church was still very weak, the benches were 
removed, pews erected, and a new roof put upon the 
building. 

This year, 1807, was a very important one in the 
history of the Church, for the event just stated and 



64 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



others. It was in this year that it formally dropped 
its connection with the German Reformed body, and 
became connected with the Presbyterian. The record 
of this event is tolerably full. On the 18th of April , 
Mr. George Castor was appointed to visit the Presby- 
tery of Philadelphia, and solicit from it a supply of 
ministers for the pulpit. In consequence of his visit 
and statements, by adjournment, Presbytery met in 
this Church for the first time on the 8th of December, 
1807. This was a memorable meeting in our annals, 
and we must preserve the names of those who com- 
posed it. They are prominent in the history of 
Presbyterianism. They were the Rev. Messrs. William 
Tennant, Green, Archibald Alexander, Janeway, 
Latta and Potts. Before this meeting was laid the 
petition of the German Reformed Congregation of 
Frankford— -composed of about thirty families. The 
petition asked that the congregation be taken under 
care of Presbytery, and pledged that they should be 
governed by the rules of the Presbyterian Church. 
Presbytery being assured that these families were 
nearly all that composed the congregation, and that 
they were then in no other ecclesiastical connection, 
agreed to take them under its care, and made arrange- 
ments for furnishing them supplies. This was in the 
close of the year 1807, when the ecclesiastical change 



OF FRANKFORD. 



65 



was made. In the next year the transfer to the 
Presbyterian connection was legalized by an act of 
incorporation from the state. In this article the 
reasons given for the change of connection are these : 
1st. There were not enough members in the old 
connection to fill the places of trust required by law. 
2d. The shades of difference between the principles 
of the German Reformed Church and those of the 
Presbyterians of the United States were unimportant. 
3d. The ministers of the gospel could be maintained 
only in connection with the Presbyterian Church. To 
this they subscribed with one mind, and left us their 
names, forty-six in number. 

After this, one of the first acts of the church in its 
new connection was the purchase, in the same year 
(1808), of the old Frankford Academy, at the price 
of 82,000. This the church kept in operation for a 
great many years afterwards. Frankford and the 
vicinity were indebted to it as their principal place of 
learning for a long time. In that academy many now 
living, but far more who are dead, received that 
education, which but for the nurturing of this Church, 
they would never have reached. This acknowledg- 
ment is due to the wisdom and foresight of the fathers. 
And it was at great sacrifices that the Church main- 
tained its academy. The support of the Church itselt 

6* 



66 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



does not seem to have occupied more of the care and 
struggles of the trustees than did the welfare of their 
academy. I could easily fill all this discourse with a 
history of their efforts to keep it alive and prosperous. 
We shall not understand the value of what they did 
unless we reflect that there were then no public schools, 
and that consequently the w 7 hole education of the 
community depended largely on this institution. 

Who were the trustees and the other officers of the 
Church during those seven eventful years ? who stood 
by it in its transition state ? who received its new char- 
ter? who established its institution of learning? Many 
of them the ancestors of those who are with us to-day. 
In addition to the trustees whom we have already 
recorded as belonging to the first period, we have now 
to name, Philip Buckius, Stephen Decatur, Benjamin 
Fisher, George Castor, Jacob Myers, Jacob Mower, 
John H. Worrell, Thomas Horton, Frederick Teese, 
John Buckius, George C. Troutman, Henry Retzer, 
Jacob Harper and Ezra Bo win. These were the trus- 
tees in the order of their election. There was but one 
deacon then — Jacob Deal. Two elders were added to 
the session — Philip Buckius and Caleb Earl. There 
was no stated pastor in the church in those years; but 
we are so fortunate as to be able to tell nearly all who 
supplied the pulpit occasionally. From a receipt ac- 



OF FRA NKFO RD. 



67 



cidentally met with in an old book of records, we learn 
that the Rev. Wm. Runkle was the principal supply 
for two or three years. From the minutes of the 
Presbytery of Philadelphia we have seen that some of 
its members were occasional supplies. But for the 
most valuable information on this point, we are in- 
debted to an old book of accounts found in a garret. 
It is a sort of journal of the Sabbaths, kept by George 
Castor, President and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees 
and Elder of the Church. For years he gives the names 
of the preachers for the day, the amount collected for 
the Church, and often the state of the weather. We 
can hardly over-estimate the value of this old book 
in the history. From this document we learn that the 
following persons supplied the pulpit. I begin with 
Dr. Wm. M. Tennant, who preached twenty one Sab- 
baths, and give the others according to the frequency 
of their preaching. Rev. Mr. Jones, Rev. Nathaniel 
Snowden who supplied the pulpit not only then, but 
also at a subsequent period, Rev. Wm. Latta, Rev. 
Jacob L. Janeway, Rev. Dr. Clarkson, Rev. George C. 
Potts, Rev. Mr. Ervin, Rev. Archibald Alexander, 
Rev. Dr. Wilson, Rev. Joseph Eastburne, Rev. Dr. 
Blair, Rev. Mr. Fiuley, Rev. Mr. Helffenstein, Rev. 
Mr. Edwards, Rev. Mr. Larzalier, Rev. Mr. Boyd, 
and several others, who each preached but one Sab- 



68 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



bath. This is a precious page in the history of our old 
Church. By the light of this old account-book and 
many other lights which we have unexpectedly found 
to guide us, we can look in upon the meetings of the 
venerable sanctuary on one of those Sabbaths between 
sixty and seventy years ago, and almost feel ourselves 
among its members. We will take Sabbath, the 4th 
of June, 1807. As we go to the sanctuary on that 
bright morning of the day of rest, how different from 
the streets of Frankford now ! There was but Main 
Street then of any importance as a street. Even its 
houses were sometimes far apart. On the other side of 
the way from us there were but four or five houses 
from Church up to Orthodox Street. Orthodox Street 
itself was only an avenue of poplar trees leading back 
to the present residence of Mr. William Overington, 
then occupied by Mr. Robert Smith — afterwards one 
of the elders of this Church. And the opening on 
Main Street was through a gate. Below Church 
Street were the old residences of Ruan and the pre- 
sent Worn rath property, where even now stands the 
summer-house in which, tradition says, the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence spent the afternoon of 
the day on which they put their hands to that moment- 
ous document. Besides this main street or road, then 
lined only by post and rail fence, there were then only 



OF FRANKFORD. 



69 



Paul's Back Lane, now Paul Street, with eighteen or 
twenty houses upon it, Meeting House Lane, now 
Unity Street, and Church Lane, now Church Street, 
with an orchard where the Decatur Engine house now 
stands, and only three houses occupied by colored fami- 
lies, as far back as the creek, then crossed by a log, 
and with a saw-mill on its bank. Such is the village 
around you as you approach the venerable house of 
worship. You see others coming with you — some on 
foot, some on horseback, some in wagons, some in 
carts. As you enter the enclosure of the sanctuary, 
you are not covered by the venerable trees which stand 
there now. They are only saplings, transplanted re- 
cently from the woods near Milestown. The congre- 
gation now assemble — not more than forty or fifty 
families in all. We can tell you the names of most of 
them. There were the ancestors of very many of 
the families who worship here from Sabbath to Sab- 
bath, even now. Among them were the old 
families of Buckius, Castor, Myers, Teese, Deal, Har- 
per, Neff, Worrell, Rohrer, Mowrer, Benner, Smith 
and Froeligh. There were Col. Patton and his fam- 
ily, then postmaster of the city, an office he had held 
since placed in it by President Washington. There 
was Mr. John McAllister, ancestor of the well-known 
family of that name, still in the city. There was pro- 



70 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



bably Enoch Edwards, brother of the younger Dr. 
Jonathan Edwards, from whom Edwards street de- 
rived its name. There were the father and mother of 
the naval hero, Stephen Decatur. Many other dear 
names were there, which we either have mentioned or 
shall yet mention. The inside of the building itself is 
plain and primitive. There are simple benches instead 
of pews. The pulpit is small and very high. It 
stands not at the end, but at the south side of the 
church. From it, on either side, extend elevated 
seats, which are occupied by the officers of the church. 
The walls are ornamented with tin candlesticks. The 
men are seated on one side of the church and the wo- 
men on the other. The music is led by Mr. Andrew 
Lockey, a Scotchman, who stands beneath the pulpit, 
with a table before him, and lines out the hymns — the 
good old hymns of Watts — as he sings them and is fol- 
lowed by the whole assembly. The amount of the 
collection is two dollars and thirty-five cents. But 
who is the preacher of the day ? No other than the 
Rev. Archibald Alexander, whose name is still fra- 
grant in all the churches, and will be for many a gene- 
ration to come. And his text is the memorable verse of 
the apostle Paul — " As I passed by, and beheld your 
devotions, I found an altar with this inscription : To 
the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly 



OF FRANK FORD. 



71 



worship, him declare I unto you." Acts 17 : 23. 
The great and good man is in his prime, and we can 
well imagine how the audience hangs upon his voice 
as he proclaims the everlasting gospel, or wrestles, as 
few could wrestle, with God in prayer. Such was the 
worship of that brief period whose annals we record 
and look back lovingly upon, for one short moment, 
from this distant age. 

The third period of our Church's history begins on 
the 18th of June, 1809, when the Rev. John AY. 
Doak was installed its pastor, and extends twenty-two 
years to the fall of 1831, when the pastorate of the 
Rev. Thomas Biggs closed. The outline of the his- 
tory in that time is this. The pastorate of the Rev. 
John AY. Doak lasted seven years, commencing June 
18th, 1809, and closing September 1st, 1816. Then 
the Church for two years had no stated pastor. The 
pulpit was filled by occasional supplies. The old 
account book of Mr. Castor, to which I have already 
referred, gives us their names. Among them we find 
the Rev. Nathaniel Snowden, the Rev. Drs. Rogers 
and Janeway, Neill and Skinner ; the Rev. Messrs. 
Belville and Janvier, Latta and Dunlap, Lambert and 
Foot and many others. On November 10th, 1818, 
the Rev. Thomas Biggs was installed pastor, and he 
remained thirteen years — until the fall of 1831. It is 



72 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



interesting to recall the important epochs in the his- 
tory and speak of the actors in them. When Mr. 
Doak was installed he was received from the Presby- 
tery of Abington in Virginia ; at his installation, the 
Rev. Jacob L. Janeway D. D., presided, the Rev. 
James P. Wilson D. D., preached the sermon, and the 
Rev. Wm. M. Tennent, D.D., gave the charges to both 
pastor and ^people. At the ordination and installation 
of Mr. Biggs, nine years afterwards, the same Jane- 
way presided, Dr. Wm. Neill preached, and the Rev. 
George C. Potts gave the charges to pastor and people. 
The first person admitted, according to the roll, to the 
membership of the church after it had become Pres- 
byterian, was the mother of Commodore Decatur. 
The elders of the church elected during this period, 
according to the time of their election, w T ere Robert 
Smith, Samuel W. Doak, Jacob Myers (1810)— 
Edward Gilfillen M. D. William Nassau, Capt. Jacob 
Peterson (1812)— Rodrick Adams (1820)— William 
Gibson, Christopher Coon, Thomas D. Mitchell M. 
D. (1829)— Alfred Jenks, George T. McCalmont 
(1830). With one exception, these have all now 
passed away from earth. Then this period had a long 
array of trustees whose names will call up grateful 
remembrances to many present. They were George 
Wilson, Edward McVaugh, Adam Baker, Jacob Peter- 



OF FRANKFORD. 



73 



son, Edward Gilfillen, M. D., Jacob Deal, Dr. William 
Hurst, Lewis W urn wag, Peter Brous, George Haines, 
Henry Rohrer, Conrad Baker, Robert Worrell, Hugh 
McKinley, Henry Castor, Danfrith Woolwurth, 
Daniel Thomas, Jacob Myers, Abraham Tenbrook, 
John R. ISieff, Benjamin A. Prentiss, Joseph Pierson, 
Capt. William Hess, Joseph Wigfall, Jacob Coates, 
Peter Buckius, Gardner Fulton, James Tatham, John 
G. Teese (w T ho long and faithfully filled that office — 
the latter part of his life President of the Board), Dr. 
John White, Abraham Yonker, Conrad Fries, Rode- 
rick Adams, Samuel Wakeling, Samuel Castor, Dr. 
Thomas D. Mitchell, Joseph Allen, William Gibson, 
Bela Badger, John Wilen, Charles Dewees, Rudolph 
Buckius, George K. Budd, Adam Slater and Alfred 
Jenks. I do not know that one of these is alive now; 
but very many of their descendants are still with us. 
At the beginning of this period Joseph R. Dickson 
was leader of the music of the sanctuary. He was 
succeeded in 1810 by Samuel White, who conducted it 
only one year. Then John G. Teese led it for seven 
years. In 1818 Jesse Y. Castor established what was 
called the Harmonic Society — a sort of singing-school 
— whose first meetings were held around the stove of 
the Church, but which continued in existence for many 

years. He was the leader of the music for three years, 
7 



74 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



though he had before been associated in that office 
with Mr. Teese. It was by him about this time that 
a choir was first organized. After him came James 
Seddins, who conducted it for six years. Then Dr. 
Mitchell and William Gibson had charge of it until 
1833, a space of about six years. 

The two memorable events of this period were the 
enlarging of the Church edifice, and the commence- 
ment of the Sabbath-school. Soon after the settle- 
ment of Mr. Doak it was found that the old building 
was too small to accommodate all the worshippers. 
Something must be done to enlarge. On the 26th of 
August, 1809, the congregation determined to under- 
take that work. Contributions were solicited in the 
Church and in the community, and the effort was so 
successful that in the next year an addition of forty 
feet was made to the front of the Church, which a 
little more than doubled its capacity. Long lists of 
those who subscribed for this object are still in exis- 
tence, from which I select a few names — omitting 
those already given in the roll of trustees, all of whom 
subscribed. We find among them — Ann Decatur, 
John McAllister, Joseph Wigfall, Mary Baker, John 
McMullen, George Onyx, Jacob Fraley, Yost Yonker, 
Robert Ralston, Abraham Kintzing, Abram Dufrleld, 
Samuel Wakeling, Anthony Kennedy, Rebecca Neff, 



OF FRANKFORD. 



75 



Alexander Martin, Robert Patton, Derick Peterson, 
Rachel Wetherill and Col. James Burn. The Build- 
ing Committee who contracted for the work and super- 
intended it, consisted of Messrs. George Castor, Joseph 
Dearman and John H. Worrell. The carpenter work 
was done by Henry Retzer ; the mason work by Jacob 
Deal, w T hose son Charles, forty years afterwards, built 
this edifice in which we are now assembled. Such 
was the old building which most of us remember, and 
which was taken down eleven years ago, to give place 
to the present large one which stands on the same spot. 

The Sabbath-school of the Church was commenced 
fifty-five years ago in the spring of 1815. It was 
projected by Mr. George Castor. By his persuasion 
Mrs. Martha Dungan commenced the school in the 
month of April, of that year. Its first session was 
held by the stove in the Church, but afterwards in the 
gallery. Mrs. Dungan had associated with her Mrs. 
Patterson— the only other teacher. The scholars 
were for a time all girls — at first only seven in 
number. Of these seven, four are still living — and 
all with us but one — members of the Church — they 
are Mrs. Mary W akeling, Mrs. Mary Stratton, Miss 
Martha Harper and Miss Sarah Xeff. The greatest 
opposition to the school at first was because it was 
free. Parents alleged that they could afford to pay 



76 



THE PRESB YTERIAN CHURCH 



for their children's schooling. The boys' department 
of the school was commenced three years afterwards 
in the old square pews in the body of the Church. Its 
first teachers were Messrs. William Gibson, Nassau, 
and John Deal. Such was the beginning of this Sab- 
bath-school which was one of the first in the land, 
which has continued for more than half a century, 
in which hundreds of souls have been converted, and 
which to-day is so large and prosperous. 

Of the two honored servants of God who during 
that period ministered in the Church, I would now 
love to give a sketch. The history w T ould be other- 
wise imperfect. But in reference to the first of them, 
the Rev. John Whitefield Doak, I am not able to do 
so with any degree of fullness. I have not the 
material. What we do know of him is that he was 
the son of the eminent Rev. Samuel Doak, D. D., of 
East Tennessee. He was born in 1788 ; was educated 
by his father ; was licensed to preach by the Abington 
Presbytery, when he was in his nineteenth year ; and 
shortly after was ordained and installed pastor of 
New Dublin and Wythville churches in Virginia. 
He was subsequently pastor of Mount Bethel and 
Providence churches in Tennessee. He was next 
installed pastor of this Church in 1809. Here he 
labored diligently for seven years, leaving an impress 



OF FRANKFORD. 



77 



never to be effaced, and a name that was honored — 
that is yet named with respect, and that is still 
borne in families that received the word from his 
lips in that olden time. In consequence of the failure 
of his health, which rendered it doubtful whether he 
would be able to continue in the ministry, he studied 
medicine, returned to Tennessee, and became a very 
Successful medical practitioner, and at the same time 
officiated as stated supply of Salem and Leesburg. 
He died in October, 1820. He was distinguished for 
his talents and usefulness. 

Of the Eev. Thomas Biggs, whose pastorate here 
was longer than any other previous to the present, we 
happily have enough information to enable us to 
appreciate the high excellency of his character and 
ministry. He was born in this city Nov. 29, 1787 — 
became a member of the Old Pine Street Church in 
1807, when the Eev. Dr. Archibald Alexander was 
its pastor — graduated at Princeton College in 1815, 
some of his classmates being Drs. Daniel Baker, 
Charles Hodge. S. C. Henry and Bishop John Johns ; 
was for a time tutor in Princeton College — studied at 
Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained bv 
the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and became pastor of 
this Church in 1818. After remaining here thirteen 
years he accepted a professorship in Lane Theological 



78 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Seminary at Cincinnati. That office he held for seven 
years, and became President of Cincinnati College in 
1839. In that position he continued for six years, 
and for three years more was President of Woodward 
College in Cincinnati. In 1852 he was installed 
pastor of the Fifth Church of that city, and after 
four years resigned that charge. From that time he 
ceased from active service. In 1864, at the age of 
seventy-seven, he fell asleep in Jesus. Of this good 
man the memory is most fragrant with all those who 
remember him as pastor of this Church. None ever 
speak of him in other words than those of veneration 
and love. There are those still with us who call him 
blessed for having been instrumental in bringing them 
into the kingdom. The best tribute to him I have 
seen is that of Bishop Mcllvaine of the Episcopal 
Church in Ohio. It was spoken at his funeral. 

" I have known the deceased for fifty years. I entered the 
college of New Jersey in 1814. The first time I saw him was 
when he came forward in the chapel to lead the singing, which 
he was accustomed to do. Dr. Green was then President of the 
college. The students were generally irreligious, and opposed 
and persecuted the few who professed religion. The latter, only 
twelve or thirteen m number, one of whom was young Biggs, 
were very faithful. They were accustomed to meet every eve- 
ning at nine o'clock for prayer in the room of one of their num- 
ber, and in these meetings they prayed earnestly for a revival 



OF FRANKFOBD. 



79 



of religion in the college. Prior to this there had never been a 
revival of religion in the college, and it required great faith to 
expect it. At length, in answer to prayer, the Spirit of God 
was poured out, so that in two or three days the largest room 
in the college was filled with the previously irreligious, asking 
for the prayers of the pious. The twelve or thirteen were now 
fully occupied in ministering to their fellow-students. The first 
prayer meeting I ever attended was in the room of young Biggs 
and Daniel Baker. Many were brought into the kingdom in 
connection with this revival. Among the rest were Dr. Arm- 
strong, late Secretary of the American Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions, and Dr. Hodge, who had previously seemed to be almost 
a Christian. Since Dr. Biggs came to the West in 1832 until 
his death, our acquaintance was intimate. We did not know 
each other as Episcopalian or Presbyterian. A beautiful trait 
in his character was the largeness of his Christian regards. 
He w r as beautiful too in his faith, and the joyfulness of his 
hope. He never seemed to see God in the pillar of cloud, 
but always in the pillar of light. Christ was so near to him 
that he felt no doubts, Great lovingness of mind and heart 
characterized him beyond what is usual. It beamed from his 
countenance, it spoke from his voice, and was expressed in 
his whole manner He must have been useful, as he was." 

These twenty-two years were a period of progress in 
the Church. Especially during the ministry of Mr. 
Biggs many were added to the kingdom of Christ, 
most of whom have gone with their beloved pastor to 
the blessed congregation above. The Church became 
then better established, and all her ordinances pre- 



80 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



pared for the work of the generations that were to 
succeed. 

The fourth period of our history was a short one. 
It covers a space of little more than six years. It 
began with the close of the ministry of the Rev. Mr. 
Biggs, in the fall of 1831, and extended to the instal- 
lation of the Rev. Win. D. Howard, March 13, 1838. 
The outline of its history is soon given. The Rev. 
James G. Watson was invited by Mr. Biggs to preach 
for a short time as he left the Church. This he con- 
tinued to do for a few months when he was called to 
accept the pastoral care of the Church. But this call 
he declined. Soon after this the Rev. J. T. Marshall 
Davie received a call and was installed pastor, August 
28, 1832. In this service the Rev. Alexander Boyd 
presided, the Rev. Wm. F. Gibson preached the ser- 
mon, and the Rev. Robert Steel delivered the charges 
to the pastor and people. 

During that summer, between his call in spring and 
installation in the autumn, the Church, and indeed 
the whole community, was sorely distracted by the 
prevalence of cholera ; and during that time there was 
only occasional preaching by a Rev. Mr. Barber. 
Mr. Davie remained but two years. Then the Rev. 
David X. Junkin supplied the pulpit for a few 
months. The Rev. Austin G. Morss succeeded and 



OF FRAXKFORD. 



81 



was installed pastor on April 30th, 1835. At his 
installation the Rev. Robert Adair preached, the Rev. 
John McDowell, D. D., presided and gave the charge 
to the minister, and the Rev. James L. Dinwiddie the 
charge to the people. Mr. Morss remained only two 
years and closed his ministry here in 1837. During 
the intervals of these various changes there frequently 
were Sabbaths when no preacher could be had ; on 
such occasions the time was generally occupied as a 
prayer-meeting, conducted by Mr. Gibson, Dr. 
Mitchell, or others. During this period there were 
but three elders elected, namely, Charles Dewees, 
John D. Harper and John Deal — the last named of 
whom is still with us, having faithfully fulfilled the 
duties of that office now for thirty-four years, and 
having been thoroughly identified with all the inter- 
ests of the Church for a much longer time. The 
clerks who conducted the music were first Daniel Axe, 
in 1833, and then Abraham Barnard from 1834 
onward. The trustees, according to the date of their 
election, were Christopher AVisner, Peter Slaughter 
(a man affectionately remembered for his purity of 
character, his Christian activity, and long-continued 
usefulness in the Church), David Smith, Samuel 
Dixon, Thomas Bell, Daniel Yonker, Francis Putt, 
George J. Foulkrod, John D. Harper, John Lamb, 



82 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



M. D., John Deal, David Hunter, William Wilkey, 

% 

Dr. R. R. Porter and Jesse Y. Castor. 

All the ministers who officiated in the Church, 
either as pastors or stated supplies during that period, 
are still alive, with one exception — that of Mr. Davie. 
Though his ministry here was short yet we must pay 
his memory a passing tribute, for he was a good man, 
and his pastorate was the brightest spot in this unset- 
tled period of our Church's history. His death 
occurred in March, 1862, at Flatlands, L. I. He fell 
with his harness on in the midst of a beloved people 
with whom his memory is still fragrant. Two things 
were characteristic of Mr. Davie — an earnest adhe- 
rence to the doctrines of the gospel as held by our 
Reformed Churches, and a most tender and loving 
heart in presenting them. One who was most inti- 
mate with him bears testimony that he was an Israelite 
indeed in whom there was no guile — that prudence, 
practical wisdom, and earnest, persevering labor in 
preaching and pastoral duties characterized him. 
Another who had been an inmate of his family for 
months declares of him that he had never seen his 
temper even ruffled. And another that he was uni- 
formly happy and forbearing so as never to be excited 
into any unkind remark about any one. Such was 
that good man whose ministry was only too short with 



OF FRANKFORD. 



83 



this people. It was during this period that the Pres- 
byterian Church of Bridesburg was organized. The 
pastors of this Churchy especially Mr. Biggs, had 
preached there before in a school-house. By their 
means the way was prepared for the organization of a 
separate church on the 24th of February, 1837. The 
elders at its organization were Alfred Jenks, Samuel 
Powel, Charles Ramsey and Andrew Ramsey. Since 
that it has gone on and prospered and, for thirty- 
three years, been a source of blessing to the com- 
munity, and has to-day a bright prospect of useful- 
ness before it. 

Such was this short period of our Church's history. 
It was an unsettled season — a season of great change 
as we have seen — a season, towards its close, of strife 
over which we will cast the mantle of oblivion ex- 
cepting so far as fidelity compels us to say that the 
Church was thereby weakened, and, for the time, 
injured greatly in her usefulness. 

The fifth period into which I have divided our 
Church's history is in one sense the most easy, and in 
another the most difficult to record. It is easy be- 
cause it is smooth, unruffled and steadily progressive ; 
but difficult to enlarge upon for that very reason, and 
because it is comparatively destitute of striking events; 
besides most of its incidents are so recent that it seems 



84 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



scarce worth while to dwell upon them before those to 
whose memory most of them are so fresh. 

This period embraces thirty-two years — from March 
13, 1838 until the present time. At that date the 
Rev. Wm. D. Howard was ordained and installed 
pastor. On that occasion the Rev. R. W. Landis 
preached, the Rev. William Neill, D. D., presided, 
and gave the charge to the minister, and the Rev. 
Robert Steele, D. D., the charge to the congregation. 
Mr. Howard remained pastor for eleven years, and 
then removed, in the spring of 1849, to Pittsburg. 
A few months afterwards the present pastor was called, 
and was ordained and installed, October 11th, 1849, 
the Rev. Robert D. Morris presiding on the occasion, 
the Rev. Silas M. Andrews, D. D., preaching, the Rev. 
Robert Steele, D. D., giving the charge to the pastor, 
and the Rev. Henry S. Rodenbaugh to the people. 
This last pastorate has continued now for over twenty 
years. The elders elected during this long period 
have been Robert Pattison (1839), Robert W. Solly, 
William Irwin, Philip Cressman (1853), Benjamin 
Rodgers, William J. Warner, James Miller (1864), 
and Robert Cornelius (1866). I must also record the 
names of the trustees, who, with much care, have con- 
ducted the temporal affairs of the Church, — Francis 
Deal, Frederick Tryon, Enoch Arthur, Robert W. 



OF FRANKFORD. 



85 



Solly, George J. Castor, William Jones, Thomas 

Wriggins, Benjamin Rodgers, Joseph Scattergood, 

William Blackburn, Randolph W. Evans, William E. 

Hamill, David Murdock, William Irwin, James C. 

Thompson, Rudolph Adams, Reuben Myers, Dr. E. 

F. Leake, Thomas W. Duffield, John G. Cumming, 

Alfred H. Foster, James Miller, Samuel Wakeling, 

Joseph Ball, James McAllister, John C. Cornelius, 

Jacob F. Wagner, Thomas Banes, Dr. William F. 

Guernsey, William Keas, F. K. Womrath, Barton 

Castor, John McMullen, Charles H. Fitler, George 

Taylor and George F. Borie. 

Those who have led in the praises of God up to 

the present time, during this period, must here find a 

place. Abraham Barnard continued in that office 

until 1840. Then Henry Bill followed for four years 

until 1844. After him came William J. Warner 

until 1848. He was succeeded by David Chipman 

for three years, until 1851. Then James O'Xeill for 

one year, and afterwards Luther B. Guernsey one 

year, until 1853. In 1854 the present leader of the 

music, Marshall Davie Yonker, entered upon his 

office, and has most faithfully and well discharged its 

duties for sixteen years. During all that time there 

has been no serious difficulty or strife of any kind in 

the choir ; but they have conducted the music of the 
8 



86 THE PBESB YTERIAN CHUB CII 



sanctuary to the great comfort, peace and edification 
of the Church. Since the organ was placed in the 
Church in 1865, George Lehman has been the skill- 
ful organist. 

I have already said that in 1799 good old George 
Rohrer was appointed sexton. That office he held for 
nineteen years, and was succeeded by Jacob Harper in 
1818, though he continued to assist for a year or two 
still. Jacob Harper held the position until 1829. 
Then John D. Harper performed its duties for two 
years, and James P. Williams for two more. In 1842 
the present esteemed sexton, Joseph Watson, was 
appointed, and has now rilled the office twenty-eight 
years, until he has become an essential part of the 
Church. 

On the 26th of April, 1853, the Presbyterian 
Church of Holmesburg, was organized as an offshoot 
from this. Both Dr. Howard and the present pastor 
of this Church had frequently preached there to 
gather the nucleus of a new church. Accordingly the 
church was organized with Robert Pattison, from this 
Church, as its first elder, and the Rev. James Scott its 
first pastor. Since that it has faithfully held its place 
in the sisterhood of our churches. 

I have taken up too much time and must now 
confine myself to general results. During the pas- 



OF FRANKFORD. 



87 



torate of Mr. Howard the Church grew and pros- 
pered. Many souls were added to it, especially in 
the year 1848, which was a time of refreshing from 
the Spirit of God. Old strifes were healed. All 
the machinery of the Church was brought into effi- 
cient working order. The church edifice was re- 
paired and remodelled ; the parsonage was built in 
1844 ; and the Sabbath-school was brought up to a 
state of numbers and efficiency, which placed it in 
the front rank of such institutions. 

As to the present pastorate, though it has been long, 
I have time or inclination to give only some of its 
results. The great event in the outward condition of 
the Church, during this time, was the removal of the 
old building which had stood for ninety years, and 
the erection of this one, twice its capacity, in its stead. 
Many and dear were the associations which had to be 
sacrificed ; but the necessity for more room compelled 
the sacrifice to be made. The corner-stone of this 
building was laid June 9th, 1859 ; and the house, 
completed, was dedicated to the worship of the Most 
High God June 14th, 1860. The mason-work was 
done by Mr. Charles Deal, and the carpenter work by 
Mr. William Irwin. Other improvements have been 
made in these twenty years — as the liquidation of 
debts, the enclosure of church and grave-yard, and 



8 8 THE PEESB YTERIA N CHUB CH 



the purchase of a large organ — but I pass by these to 
speak of the higher, the spiritual blessings vouchsafed 
to us. We have had times of refreshing, as in 1854 
and 1858, but especially, 1866, during which year 
nearly one hundred persons were added to the Church. 
Out of the eighty-two communion seasons we have 
had in that time, there were but two when no names 
were added to our roll. In the beginning of these 
twenty years there were one hundred and thirty-six 
members in the church ; there are now four hundred 
and thirty- three. Of those who were with us then 
there remain now but forty-five. The Sabbath-school 
which at first had but nine, now numbers over five 
hundred persons. During these twenty years we have 
had the inexpressible pleasure of receiving nearly six 
hundred persons into the Church. Thus has God 
blessed us, and to his name be the praise. 

One century of our Church has closed, and as we 
look back over it we must pay a grateful tribute to 
the memory of those who toiled, and struggled, and 
prayed to keep the light of truth burning here and to 
build up the walls of this Zion. Amongst those who 
have lived for God and their race let not their names 
be forgotten. Let not us especially who have entered 
into their heritage forget them. Four or five of their 
names we would repeat before we close. They were 



OF FRANKFORD. 



89 



rulers in this house of God, and but recently in the 
century went to their rest. 

The first of these elders who slept in Jesus, was 
Roderick Adams in 1838, at the age of 51. For a 
short time he was the sole elder of the Church. 
Truthfully could it be said of him that he was a 
man with scarce an enemy. Prudent, amiable, reti- 
ring, he could be known only to be beloved. 

Xext to go home to Jesus was George Castor, in 
1844 — at the age of 79. A descendant of one of 
the four who laid the foundations of the Church 
in the beginning, he was five years old when his 
grandfather helped in that good work. Himself 
among the first of its elders — when the church was 
to be established in a new connection — when its 
first house of worship was to be enlarged — when great 
trouble had to be taken to supply its pulpit — when 
great sacrifices had to be made to bear its expenses 
and maintain its ordinances— George Castor was 
always firm and ready. He has been known even 
to mortgage his own property, that the interests of 
his Zion might be supported. Such was the venera- 
ble and upright man, whose name for nearly half a 
century was on almost every page of our Church's 
history. 

The "next of these elders who slept in Jesus, was 

8* 



90 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



William Gibson, in the year 1851, at the age of 
63. A native of the North of Ireland, he early em- 
braced and was deeply grounded in the principles of 
the grand old system of doctrines which we profess. 
But he was also active in all the departments of 
Christian usefulness. As one of the founders of its 
Sabbath-school, a leader of its music, an active elder, 
a man of prayer, the possessor of a warm, Christian 
heart, — his name shall long live in our Zion. 

Next of these beloved names is that of Alfred 
Jenks, who rested from his labors in 1854, at the age 
of 61. He was a man of strong faith and trust in 
God. As one who was never tiring, and most gen- 
erous in enterprises for the promotion of Christ's king- 
dom, he is well remembered. Even though at a dis- 
tance from the house of God, he would seldom be 
absent from its services either on Sabbath or week- 
day. While the church esteems those who are lovers 
of good men and friends of Christian enterprise, the 
name of Mr. Jenks will be fragrant. 

Another of those whose memory is still cherished 
with us is John D. Harper. As elder and trustee of 
the church, and superintendent of the Sabbath-school 
and member of a family connected prominently with 
the Church from its commencement until the present 
time, Mr. Harper cannot be forgotten. None was 



OF FRANKFORD. 



91 



more active than he in every good word and work. 
Hand and heart, he was ready to engage in every- 
thing calculated to promote the cause of Christ. Mr. 
Harper was eminently a man of peace. Affectionate 
in his own disposition, it was his study to promote the 
brotherly affection and harmony of the church. He 
was ever a staunch friend of his ministers in all efforts 
to advance the interests of Zion. In October, I860, 
at the age of fifty nine, he slept peacefully in Jesus. 

One other of these dear names I must mention — 
that of Dr. Thomas D. Mitchell. He finished his 
earthly work and went to his crown in 1865, 
at the age of 74. For a long time he was ruling 
elder of this Church, and his name stands upon its 
records as prominent in every good word and work. 
His piety and zeal were unflinching, and oh, how 
many will rise up to call him blessed ! Many other 
names of elders and others I would love to linger 
upon, but time utterly forbids, and I would not know 
how to select without appearing partial. 

But while we speak gratefully of these, to the 
Great Head of the Church our supreme gratitude is 
due. He planted this branch. He has kept it alive. 
He nurtured it during all these years. He sheltered 
it under the rage of every storm. He has brought 
it at the close of a century to be the goodly tree we now 





92 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHTJR CE 

behold. And, with all our hearts, we say to him, as 
our fathers did in the beginning, u Thine be the praise 
and thanks, honor and glory, now and for ever." 

And what a goodly portion is ours, dear friends of 
this Zion ! It has been prepared for us by the labors, 
and sacrifices and prayers of a hundred years. We 
come to it when our Presbyterian Church is united 
and entering upon a new era. We come to it in an 
age which is most eventful and promising. Oh* what 
a glorious prospect we may have before us ! But 
w r hat a solemn responsibility too ! Let us then be 
faithful in our lot. Let us recognize what that lot is. 
All this accumulation of power for Christ and souls 
let us use with the ardor it deserves. Let us look upon 
these hundred years as the preparation, the sowing time 
— now let our striving be for fruit an hundred-fold. 

The stream of this Church's time is following on 
and on. We have now been thrown into it, and our 
portion is floating by. Where shall it bear us ? If 
another hand writes our history in the years to come, 
what shall it be ? A history of usefulness, of loving 
piety, of burning zeal for Jesus, whose name we bear 
and whose blood saves us ? God grant that it may be 
— and then, in eternity, a hundred years to come — and 
a hundred hundred years to come — we shall render 
him far louder praise. 



OF FRANKFORD. 



93 



Our forefathers, a hundred years ago, left this 
Church to their successors, with a solemn charge to 
preserve it, and to seek to increase its numbers. 

We now, at the beginning of another century, send 
it down to our successors, and this is our charge to 
them : Maintain the truth. Be faithful to Jesus, your 
King. Keep Him near your hearts. Gather men 
into the kingdom. Grow in grace. And our last 
obligation — love one another. 



VIII- 

ANTHEM. 

STJNG BY THE CHOIR. 

"the lord of hosts." 

Choetjs. 

Loed of Hosts, to Thee we raise, 
Here a song of grateful praise ; 
Thou Thy people's hearts prepare 
Here to meet for praise and prayer. 

Teeble Solo. 

Let the living here be fed, 

With Thy word, the heavenly bread ; 

Here in hope of glory blest, 

May the dead be laid to rest. 

Duett. 1st and 2d Treble. 

Here to Thee a temple stand, 
While the sea shall gird the land. 



94 THE PBESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



Here reveal Thy mercy sure, 
While the sun and moon endure. 

Chorus. 

Hallelujah, Hallelujah earth and sky, 

To the joyful sound reply ; 

Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hence ascend, 

Prayer and praise till time shall end. Amen. 



IX. 

BENEDICTION, 

BY THE REV. J. ADDISON HENRY. 



Afternoon Exercises, 9i o'clock. 



THE REV. J, GRIER RALSTON, D.D., LL, D. PRESIDING. 



L 

INVOCATION- 

BY THE REV. JOSEPH A. WARNE. 

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Lord, our God, 
thou hast been the dwelling-place of thy people 
in all generations. A thousand years in thy sight, 
when they are past, are but as yesterday. We are 
met, in thy good providence, to celebrate the centen- 
arv anniversary of the church which worships thee 
within these walls. We bless thee for thy dealings 
with them, and we now ask thy blessing upon these 
exercises which yet remain. If thou wilt bless us, no 
place shall be large enough to receive the blessing; 
and though the ordinarv ministrations of the sanctu- 
ary are not those of the present hour, we ask that 
blessino; from on high which renders those ministra- 

95 



96 THE PBESB YTEBIAN CHUB CH 



tions fruitful. Bless every exercise of the present 
hour. May those who shall speak, speak from pure 
motives, speak guided by heavenly wisdom, and may 
what they speak be blessed by thee to the most bene- 
ficial results, and to the greatest glory of thy name. 
"When thy praise shall be sung may it be sung in the 
spirit and the understanding; and may those who 
lead in this delightful part of worship, without a 
solitary exception, unite at last, in the song of Moses 
and the Lamb, at thy right hand. Hear, answer, for- 
give, and accept us for our Redeemer's sake. Amen. 



II. 

ANTHEM. 

SUNG BY THE CHOIR. 
PRAISE GOD IN HIS HOLINESS. 

praise God in his holiness, 

Praise him in the firmament of his power, 

Praise him in his noble acts, 

Praise him according to his excellent greatness, 

Praise him in the sound of the trumpet, 

Praise him upon the lute and harp, 

Praise him in the cymbals and dances, 

Praise him on strings and pipes. 

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. 



OF FRANKFORD. 



97 



III 

PRAYER, 

BY THE BEY. ALBERT BARNES. 

O Lord, our heavenly Father, assist us, we pray 
thee, by the influences of thy Spirit, as we enter upon 
these services. We pray that thou wilt be with us in 
all that we may do ; that we may have a single eye to 
thy glory, and an earnest desire to advance the inter- 
ests of the Redeemer's kingdom. We thank thee for 
the exercises in which we were engaged this morning, 
and that we have been permitted to come unto this 
house and celebrate thy praises, to call upon thy name 
by prayer, to call to remembrance thy goodness to this 
church, during the long period of its past history ; for 
thy favor shown to this Church during these hundred 
years, that thou hast been w 7 ith it in its struggles, con- 
flicts and changes ; that thou hast watched over this 
vine of thy planting and caused it to bear abundant 
fruit ; for thy servants whom thou hast raised up and 
sent to this place to preach the unsearchable riches of 
Christ ; for all the aid thou hast given them in their 
ministry, the success that attends their labor. We 
bless thee for the great numbers that have here been 
converted by thy truth dispensed; sustained in the 



98 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



trials of life; guarded in its temptations; upheld in 
the hour of death ; and gone to be with their Master 
and Saviour in heaven. Blessed be thy name for 
these great evidences of thy favor to this Church ; for 
its personal prosperity; for this house of worship; for 
these arrangements for thy praise ; for prayer ; for the 
administration of the ordinances of thy house, and 
instruction of the young. 

We pray thy blessing still to rest upon this Church 
and congregation ; that thou wilt be very gracious to 
it in time to come, as in times past; that it may be to 
this community a light set upon a hill, which cannot 
be hid, its influence seen and felt far and near;- that 
thou wilt graciously bless thy servant the pastor, 
endue him plenteously with heavenly gifts, with 
health, and prosperity and long life ; smile upon his 
labors when he preaches the gospel, and in all his in- 
tercourse with his people. Bless the officers of this 
Church, that they may be righteous men, acting in the 
fear of God, sincerely seeking the honor of the 
Saviour and the best interests of religion. We pray 
for all the members of the Church, present or absent, 
for any who may be sick or afflicted in any form, for 
all connected with the congregation, for all those who 
are trained up in this sanctuary, who have been in the 
Sabbath-school or Bible-class, and early placed under 



OF FRANKFORT). 



99 



the instruction of thy word, and have gone forth into 
the great world ; wherever they go protect them, 
bring to their remembrance the lessons of their early 
life that they may practise them ; if converted, keep 
near thyself ; if still strangers, bring the lessons of thy 
truth to their remembrance, that they may give their 
hearts to God the Saviour. 

Let thy blessing rest upon this place and people, 
upon all the churches here and ministers of religion, 
and pour thy blessing upon this city, upon the whole 
country, and upon every land. Hear our prayer and 
be with us for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. 



IV. 

ADDKESS 

BY THE RET. WILLIAM D. HOWARD, D. D., FORMERLY PASTOR OF THE 

CHURCH. 

Before I proceed to say what I intended to when I 
came from my somewhat distant home to-day, I have 
been requested to express the thanks of my brethren 
here on the platform, and those scattered through the 
house, and all others who partook of the bountiful 
repast anvhile ago, which was provided by the ladies 
of this Church. I hardly know why I was deputed 
to express their thanks, unless, it may have been 



100 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



because having met with so many of my old friends, 
I did not get into the dinner room at a very early 
hour and therefore was not so filled that I was beyond 
utterance, which may have been the case with some 
others. The thanks of the brethren here, and all, as I 
said before, are most cordially tendered to the ladies 
for the repast which they provided. 

I have a brief story to tell in relation to this Church, 
with which no one is so familiar as myself. This is 
my apology for occupying a few moments of your 
precious time on this interesting occasion. 

The year 1838 was a memorable year in the history 
of the Presbyterian Church in this country. A 
variety of agencies, which had been gathering strength 
for some time, at length sundered the Church into two 
nearly equal parts. The stream which had flowed so 
long with a gradually increasing volume, was rudely 
divided into two branches, which having continued 
their separate, though nearly parallel courses for 
nearly the third of a century, are now, by the good 
providence of God, again happily re-united. The 
year 1838 was also somewhat memorable in the 
history of this particular congregation. The Frank- 
ford Church had felt the violence of the storm which 
beat upon the church at large, and was well nigh 
wrecked by it. Just before the rupture of the whole 



OF FRANKFORD. 



101 



church, this little branch was riven and so beaten 
clown as to excite the fears of all, except a few 
sanguine friends who hoped against hope, that its life 
was extinct. It was at this time that the speaker 
became acquainted with it. 

He had been licensed to preach in October, 1837, 
and during the winter of 1837-8, repeatedly occupied 
this pulpit. Early in the year a unanimous call was 
tendered him by the congregation, which he accepted, 
and on the 13th of March was ordained and installed 
their pastor. At that time the Second Presbytery of 
Philadelphia, under whose care the church was then, 
as it is now, consisted of sixteen ministers, among 
whom were Dr. John McDowell, Dr. William Xeill, 
Dr. C. C. Cuyler, Dr. Eobert Steel, and Dr. Courtlandt 
Van .Rensselaer. What havoc has the third of a 
century made in its ranks ! But a single man remains ; 
Dr. Silas M. Andrews, who was then connected with 
it. Xine, if not ten of the sixteen, are dead. The 
industrious McDowell, the eloquent Xeill, the wise 
Cuyler, the courteous Steel, and that model man, 
Christian and minister, Courtlandt Van Rensselaer, are 
gone "to join the glorious company of the Apostles, 
the goodly fellowship of the Prophets and the noble 
army of the Martyrs/ 3 in the services of the upper 
sanctuary. 

9* 



1 02 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



At the time the new pastor was inducted into office 
the Church was in a very feeble condition. The 
Sabbath audiences were small, not exceeding perhaps, 
on the most inviting days, a hundred or a hundred 
and sixty persons. With few exceptions the people 
were poor, and could only afford for the support of 
their minister some six hundred dollars a year. 

The Church roll contained from eighty toeighty-five 
names ; the Sabbath-school consisted of some thirty or 
thirty-five children, taught by five or six teachers ; 
the corporation was very considerably in debt, and the 
Church edifice, and indeed the whole Church property, 
was in a very unpropitious condition. 

You must not suppose at that time there was such a 
tasteful and commodious building as this. Our 
temple was much humbler, though to the speaker, and 
peradventure to a few of his audience, owing to the 
very tender memories which cluster about it, even a 
more cherished object than this. It was a small but 
substantial stone edifice, standing nearly, if not exactly 
on the same spot as this building, and, like it, fronting 
the Main street. It was not wholly destitute of 
architectural pretensions. The front door and win- 
dows presented quite a churchly appearance, and were 
certainly creditable to the taste and liberality of those 
who erected the building. The rest of the house, 



\ 



OF FBANKFORD. 



103 



both inside and outside, was quite plain. It was but 
one story in heigh t, and you entered the audience 
chamber directly from the Church lawn. In one end 
of the house was a small gallery which accommodated 
the choir, and also afforded ample room for the tiny 
Sabbath-school ; in the other was a small pulpit, not 
much larger than a barrel, which, according to the 
strange taste of the times in which it was built, was 
put as far from the people and as near the ceiling as 
might be. It was reached by a single flight of steep 
and narrow steps. The house was heated by two coal 
stoves ; one of good, portly dimensions under the 
gallery and immediately within the front doors, pre- 
pared to battle with Jack Frost at the very threshold ; 
the other near the other end of the Church, and that 
with the double purpose, it may be, of protecting the 
ends of the pews from an excess of heat and securing 
heat of some sort in the pulpit, was elevated upon a 
table in the middle aisle, and a few feet from the 
preacher. This stove, with its tall, slender, rusty pipe, 
which ran at an angle of perhaps sixty degrees to an 
opening in the ceiling, though a very useful, was cer- 
tainly not a very elegant piece of furniture. 

From the centre of the ceiling was suspended, by a 
huge iron rod, a glass chandelier, which, doubtless, 
had been both costly and beautiful, but which at the 



104 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



time of which we speak was much the worse for age. 
Indeed, so dilapidated was it, that though your 
speaker spent some days of anxious and patient toil, 
and no little ingenuity withal, upon it, he was unable 
to put it in even tolerable repair. The other facilities 
for lighting; the Church were a number of tin sconces 
hung upon the walls. When these were all provided 
with their sperm candles, at our Sabbath evening ser- 
vices, we were furnished, in the fullest sense of the 
term, with a "dim religious light." 

The pews were remarkable for their affluence of 
lumber. The backs, of hardest and costliest pine, all 
innocent of upholstering or paint, reached well up to 
a short man's neck. The walls had been colored with 
a blue wash, which the most skillful and persistent 
endeavors could never cover with more becoming 
white. 

But the appliances for administering the communion 
were, perhaps, more unique than anything else. Of 
the communion service itself the speaker has not a 
distinct remembrance. He recollects, however, to 
have found — though whether it was used or not he 
cannot say — in a closet under the pulpit, a tankard, 
some goblets, and possibly plates — all of pewter, and 
so odd and antique that he presumes - they had been 
handed down from our good old High Dutch prede- 



OF FRANKFORD. 



105 



cessors, and possibly came over from the Fatherland 
much more than a hundred years ago. But our 
communion table ! Ah ! it would have thrown a 
ritualist into convulsions. It was a small stand, the 
top of which was about two feet square, and as it was 
not high enough, when standing on its own proper 
legs, to reach the top of the ceiling, which enclosed a 
little chancel in which the minister stood whilst 
administering the ordinance, there were four sticks 
provided which were tied to the proper limbs of the 
table, by which a cubit or two were added to its stature. 
Eepeatedly on this very spot, have we administered 
the most solemn and instructive rite of our holy 
religion from this very structure, and certain are we, 
with not less comfort and edification to God's dear 
people, many of whom are now in heaven, than if our 
communion table had been of the finest Corinthian brass 
and the service of burnished gold. " What is the 
chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord." 

But whilst everything was thus plain — perhaps 
some will think rude — within our little sanctuary, the 
scene without, especially at certain seasons of the year, 
was one of rare beauty. The smooth, green sod, 
softer than an Eastern carpet ; the pleasant shade of 
numerous trees, and especially the row of majestic and 
graceful elms in front, unrivalled in this country, 



106 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



perhaps in the state, which — alas ! like those who 
planted them a hundred years ago, and many who 
have admired them and enjoyed their grateful shade — 
have passed away; the Sabbath stillness and the 
subdued light streaming in at the open door and 
windows, as the little company of worshippers waited 
on God in the ordinances of his house constituted a 
picture of very unusual beauty. 

Though they w T ere a little flock there were among 
them some godly men and women who loved the 
Church for its own and its Master's sake, and who 
labored prayerfully and earnestly to build up its waste 
places. Some of these are still living and still here, 
whom to mention, therefore, would not be fitting. 
Some, however, have been taken to the church above, 
and there is great propriety on this occasion in calling 
to remembrance their names and services. Prominent 
among these were Mr. George Castor and his most 
estimable family ; Mr. John D. Harper, who was "an 
Israelite indeed in whom " there was " no guile/ 7 — to 
whom more than to any other one the congregation is 
indebted for the comfortable parsonage they have so 
long possessed ; Mrs. John Deal, one of the gentlest 
of Christians, a lady whose life was spent in deeds of 
charity ; Mrs. David Hunter, whose affection for the 
church was as tender as a mother's for her child ; Mrs. 



OF FRANKFORD. 



107 



Parthenia Clark, a godly widow who helped us much 
by her prayers ; Mr. Tennant and Mr. Finlayson, 
the one a canny, the other a fierce Scot, who had a 
passion for orthodoxy, and who, at three-score years 
and ten, we have no doubt, would have been ready to 
shoulder a musket in defence of the kirk and the 
crown rights of King; Jesus. 

Mr. Castor was a man of iron will and extraordi- 
nary energy, and as he had considerable substance he 
was, for a long period of years, an efficient friend of 
the congregation ; and to his family, every one of 
whom now sleep beside him in the little cemetery 
adjoining, this Church owes a deep debt of gratitude. 
We rejoice to be able to say that not only Mr. Castor, 
w T hose generous friendship and efficient aid in our 
work we shall ever look back upon with especial 
pleasure ; but others whom I have mentioned have 
left descendants who still live to love this Church and 
to labor efficiently for its prosperity. There were 
others whose names in the hurry of writing we could 
not recall. Had we time it would afford us unfeigned 
pleasure to summon their names to our memory, and 
to record at length our testimony to their faithful and 
self-denying services ; for to us there is nothing more 
grateful than to accord to those who have labored w^ith 
us in the gospel their full recompense of praise. 



108 THE PBESB YTEEIAN CIIUE CH 



From time to time others, who became efficient 
helpers, were added to the little band. Among these 
was our now venerable and dear friend, Mrs. Hamill, 
whose husband had been for a long time an elder in 
the Seventh Church of Philadelphia. Mr. Hamill 
never worshipped with us. He came here only to die. 
Had he lived, we are well assured the little Church 
would have found in him a most valuable acquisition 
to its strength, and the young pastor a very efficient 
helper in his work. The families of Dr. George T. 
McCallmont, Mr. George F. Womrath, Mr. John 
Wetherill, Mr. Thomas Wriggins, Mr. William 
Blackburn, Mr. Samuel C. Ford, Mrs. Ball and her 
sons Joseph and Charles, cast in their lot with us, and 
from these households, mainly after the retirement of 
the speaker, the Church derived many of its most 
consistent members, and active and liberal Christian 
workers. 

From time to time many of the youth whose parents 
had long been connected with the congregation became 
members of the Church. Among these were members 
of the families of Mr. Enoch Arthur, Mr. Daniel 
Yonker, Mrs. Hubbs, Mrs. Quicksall, Mrs. Dewees, 
and others. There were several families to whom the 
Church was much indebted, who did not live within 
the bounds of the congregation, but who still retained 



OF FRANKFORD. 



109 



their connection with it. The principal of these were 
Mr. Bela Badger, Mrs. James Hart, his daughter, and 
Mrs. Martha Dungan, his sister-in-law. Mr. Badger 
was a liberal man, and was ever ready to help us with 
his counsel and his purse. These families did much 
to carry forward the first fairs which were held in the 
congregation, and it was in no small part owing to 
their activity and liberality, that they were so suc- 
cessful. During the summer the congregation was 
increased, the treasury somewhat replenished, and the 
pastor encouraged by the presence of a number of 
families from Philadelphia, w r hose country residences 
were in the neighborhood. Among these were Comegys 
Paul, of the First Church, James N. Dickson, an elder 
in the Sixth Church, Alexander W. Mitchell, M. D., 
an elder in the Tenth Church, William McMain and 
Dr. Bergen. In the early part of the ministry of the 
speaker the congregation was under great obligations 
to Dr. John F. Lamb. Dr. Lamb was a somewhat 
remarkable man, and though he subsequently became 
alienated from the congregation and withdrew from 
it, yet he was, in one of the darkest hours of its 
history, an efficient friend. Forgetting everything 
that was, or that seemed to be unkind either to himself 
or to the Church, the speaker feels himself called upon 
to bear this testimony in favor of one who spent a 
10 



110 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



long life in this community, and whose ashes now lie 
in yonder little church-yard. 

One of the first things the young pastor felt called 
upon to do was to endeavor to heal the breaches 
which had been made by the unhappy controversy 
which had preceded his coming. In this difficult 
task he was singularly aided by giving heed to one 
word dropped by a wise and good man. That word 
was "Conciliation." "A soft answer turneth away 
wrath." So we found it. Conciliation was like oil 
on the troubled waters. Families which had been 
alienated returned to the congregation, and some of 
these were among the most valuable families we had ; 
friends who had been at variance were reconciled ; the 
past was forgotten because we resolutely refused to 
allow it to be spoken of ; and ere long a day of slow 
but increasing prosperity dawned upon us. From the 
beginning a few were added to the Church. Very 
few indeed at first, but still enough to show that the 
work had the Master's approval. The first year only 
seven — three on examination and four on certificate ; 
the second, fifteen — nine on examination and six on 
certificate ; the third, ten — two on examination, and 
eight on certificate — -and so on. At no time during 
the first ten years was there any special outpouring of 
the Spirit. In the eleventh and last year, however, a 



OF FRANKFORT). 



Ill 



gracious visitation was enjoyed, during which twenty- 
three persons were received into the Church on profes- 
sion of their faith, which though not absolutely, was 
relatively, a large number ; and it was regarded as a 
special mark of the divine favor. During the time of 
the speaker's pastorate there were added to the church 
one hundred and forty-two persons — eighty-two on 
examination and sixty on certificate, nearly doubling 
the number of names on the church roll. 

Early and special attention was given to the chil- 
dren of the congregation. Every appliance we could 
command to increase the numbers in the Sabbath- 
school and to increase its efficiency was brought into 
requisition. Among others a magic-lantern was pro- 
cured, and as often as possible exhibitions and lectures 
on Scripture subjects were given, not only to the 
scholars of our own school but also to the children of 
the town. On these occasions the little Church was 
thronged not only with children, but also with men 
and women, wdio seemed to take just as much pleasure 
in looking at the gay pictures and listening to the 
simple lectures as the juveniles themselves. When 
the speaker came among this people there was a faith- 
ful and persistent, though very small band of Sab- 
bath-school teachers, to whose ranks, from time to 
time, as scholars increased, others were added, until 



112 THE PEESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



they became a little host. Our quarters in the gallery- 
were presently found to be too confined for us, and we 
were obliged to betake ourselves to the body of the 
Church ; and in process of time the little sanctuary 
was well-nigh filled with scholars, teachers and 
school-officers. In eleven years we had grown cer- 
tainly from less than fifty teachers and scholars to 
over three hundred. 

One of the most pleasing facts in this connection is 
that quite a number from the school was brought into 
the Church. For a long time we were accustomed to 
have a little prayer-meeting immediately after the 
exercises of the school were over. These were among 
the most precious meetings the speaker ever attended, 
and he believes the simple services conducted on these 
occasions were more successful in gathering souls into 
the fold of Christ than any other service he per- 
formed. The Sabbath-school was emphatically the 
nursery of the Frankford Church. 

Whilst attending to these more important matters, 
the congregation did not neglect the house of worship. 
To all, we may say, to a few especially, the very stones 
and dust were precious. We began by mending our 
ways. A brick pavement was laid from the sidewalk 
on the street to the front door. A vestibule was parti- 
tioned off ; the stoves were displaced by a capacious 



OF FRA XKFORD. 



113 



furnace in the cellar ; the venerable chandelier and 
homely sconces were succeeded by more modern and 
somewhat splendid fixtures, to barn oil ; the lofty 
pulpit was taken down and one put up. which, though 
plain, was really not only convenient but also beauti- 
ful. In front of it was a platform which was fur- 
nished with neat mahogany chairs ; the little, crippled 
communion table was set aside for the one which is 
now before me; a new communion service was pro- 
cured ; the pews were taken down, remodelled and 
painted : the depressing blue on the walls, as we could 
do nothing else, was covered with a coat of plaster ; 
and the aisles were carpeted. And when all this was 
done we had as pretty a little village church, me- 
thinks, as could have been found within the limits of 
our broad Commonwealth. 

The funds to make these repairs and improvements, 
were raised in considerable part, by fairs gotten up 
and conducted by the ladies of the congregation. This 
was at a time when fairs were not so common, so pro- 
fitable, nor so objectionable, perad venture, as now. 
Ours were conducted on the fairest principle, by the 
fairest ladies, and the results withal were very fair — 
not only that they furnished a considerable amount of 
money, but they also taught the congregation the im- 
portance of combining their efforts, and working 

10* 



114 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



together to further the interests of Christ's kingdom. 
About 1844, if we remember aright, the congrega- 
tion took active measures to build a parsonage, con- 
structing it in such a way as to secure a lecture-room 
under the same roof. The house was finished and the 
lecture-room furnished at a cost of about twenty-five 
hundred dollars. It was a very considerable under- 
taking for the congregation at the time, but as it was 
engaged in, after much deliberation and prayer, with 
great earnestness and resoluteness of purpose ; in due 
time it w T as successfully accomplished. The sub- 
scriptions were not in money alone, but in material, 
labor and time. One for example gave the stone in 
the quarry, others took it out, whilst others hauled it. 
The sash was all painted, and, unless our memory is 
at fault, every pane of glass put into them by Mr. 
John D. Harper, assisted by the unskillful hands of 
the pastor. He, however, as we can testify, became 
quite an expert painter and glazier before the work 
was completed. 

Whilst these labors were being carried forward in 
Frankford, there were several places in the surround- 
ing country where occasional religious services were 
held. One of these was at a school-house on Hart 
Lane, between, as the phrase then was, Frankford and 
the city; another at Bustleton, a village some five 



OF FRANKFORD. 



115 



miles to the north-west ; and a third at Holmesburg, 
about as far north. At this latter place, where several 
families belonging to the Church, including one of the 
elders, Mr. Robert Pattison, resided, these humble 
endeavors proved to be the germ of a church, which, 
however, was not organized until after the speaker left. 

Gradually, but steadily, under the smile of Heaven, 
the little church grew. The people were united and 
harmonious. Their pastor had their confidence and 
most cheerful assistance, and they had his affection 
and undivided toil. Thus pleasantly, and through 
the divine favor somewhat usefully, we trust, eleven 
years and upward glided by very quickly. Those 
eleven years had wrought very considerable changes. 
When the period began the congregation was feeble 
and discouraged ; when it closed it was comparatively 
strong and full of hope. When it began the sanctu- 
ary was by no means comfortable — there was no par- 
sonage, no lecture-room, considerably less than a hun- 
dred church members, the Sabbath congregations were 
small, and the Sabbath-schools very small. When it 
closed the church-building was a sightly and most 
comfortable house of prayer — there was a good par- 
sonage, a small, but pleasant lecture-room, the church- 
membership had been doubled, the congregations were 
more than doubled, and the Sabbath-school increased 



116 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUR CII 



eight or ten-fold. "It was the Lord's doing." To him 
be all the praise. 

The speaker is grateful to the Master, that he per- 
mitted him to engage in his work here, and that he 
gave him so many tokens of his favor. Not the least 
of these was that he sent him such a man as he did as 
successor. His wise and faithful labors at once pre- 
served and perpetuated the work of his predecessor. 
And among all who are here to-day, there is no one 
who more heartily congratulates him on his success. 
From the small plant which we left and he found, by 
the help of the Great Head of the Church, he has 
reared a majestic and fruitful tree; from the small 
beginnings to which we have referred, he has been 
enabled to raise a superstructure, which, every one 
who loves our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed 
cause, must contemplate with delight. It is worth a 
life-time to do such a work. But here again, we say, 
"It is the Lord's doing." To him be the praise. 

And now, whatever may betide the speaker or this 
congregation, whilst memory lasts, he shall not cease 
to look back upon his residence and his labors among 
this dear people with the tenderest recollections ; and 
when his work is done he hopes to meet many, to 
whom he here brake the bread of life, at the marriage 
supper of the Lamb in Heaven. 



OF FRANKFOBD. 



117 



V. 

ANTHEM. 

STJXG BY THE CHOIR. 

jehovah's praise. 

Chorus. 

Jehovah's praise, Jehovah's praise, in high immortal strains 
Kesound, ye heavens, through all the blissful plains. 

Solo. — Treble. 

His glorious power, radiant sun display. 
Far as thy vital beams diffuse the day. 
Thou silver moon, arrayed in softer light, 
Eecount his wonders to the list'ning night. 
Let all thy glitt'ring train attendant wait, 
And every star his Maker's name repeat. 

Duett. — Treble and Alto. 

Ye glorious angels, tune the raptured lay, 
Through the fair mansions of eternal day, 
His praise let all the shining ranks proclaim, 
And teach the distant worlds your Maker's name. 

Chorus. 

Bright with the splendor of his dazzling rays, 
Exalted realms of joy reflect his praise. 



118 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



VI. 

ADDRESS 

BY THE KEV. CHARLES HODGE, D. D., LL.D. 

Christian friends, I find my name on this pro- 
gramme, and the subject assigned me is " The Early 
History of Presbyterianism in this Country, and 
Reminiscences of Rev. Dr. Biggs." As I purpose to 
occupy only a few moments of your time this after- 
noon T shall take the liberty of making a choice of 
one of the two themes assigned me, and confine what 
I have to say to reminiscences of my old friend and 
class-mate. Though it is more than fifty years since 
he was pastor of this Church, and more than a genera- 
tion of men have passed away since then, I know 
there are many present who were personally acquainted 
with him during his pastoral life, and still more who 
have heard of him from their parents and cherish his 
memory to the present hour with fond affection. 

It was in the year 1812, fifty-eight years ago — it 
seems almost incredible — in the sophomore recitation 
room of Princeton College the roll of the class gradu- 
ating 1815 was first called. At that period in the 
history of the college there was no freshman, — or 
none to speak of. Allen, Baker, Biggs, — names fami- 
liar from 1836 to 1840 — constituting the class, of whom 



OF FBA XKFORD. 



119 



much less than half, probably not more than one- 
third still live. As might have been expected there 
was a great diversity in the age and degrees of pre- 
paration for the college course among the members of 
this class. Dr. Biggs was one of the oldest and one 
of the best-prepared for the curriculum upon which 
he was about to enter, and was very well qualified to 
teach the rest of us. Almost all were so much below 
him in the standard of preparation for college that he 
was well qualified to be our tutor. During the three 
years we remained together in college, and the two 
years spent in the theological seminary, we were very 
intimately associated ; so that I have the clearest 
recollection of the man and feel qualified to bear testi- 
mony in the midst of this large congregation, to the 
many who either knew or have heard of him as pas- 
tor of this church, that he was a man characterized 
then, and through life, by wisdom, goodness and 
benevolence. He was a man of large benevolence 
and fine feeling. This is the character he has left 
impressed upon the memories of the people — a wise, 
good, amiable, affectionate man. 

His associates in the class of 1815, many of them, 
have become more or less known to the church as 
preachers of the gospel. It was during the last win- 
ter of connection in college — the winter of 1815 — 



120 THE PEESB YTERIAN CH TIE OB 



that that revival of religion within the walls of 
Nassau Hall occurred, which is, perhaps, one of the 
most remarkable that has ever been known in the his- 
tory of the college. I believe at least twenty minis- 
ters were the fruits of that revival. Twenty young 
men from the number of those then gathered into the 
church consecrated themselves to the service of Christ 
in the ministry of reconciliation. Dr. Biggs, how- 
ever, and his room-mate, the Eev. Daniel Baker, had 
long been members of the church, and it was largely 
to their influence, to the wisdom of their counsels, to 
the fidelity of their admonition, to the assiduity of their 
efforts, that that work of grace was, under God, so 
successfully carried on. I wish I could summon 
around me some of the men who were then in college, 
and ask them if they could not remember the room of 
Biggs and Baker in the north-western part of that 
college building. That room is consecrated in the 
memory of many yet living. There, night after 
night, we young men bowed down with broken hearts 
and subdued souls, bathed in tears, struggling for 
eternal life ; and those men, afterwards so prominent 
in the history of the church, w 7 ere all to guide, to 
admonish, to point to Christ and bid no man despair 
since Christ, the Son of God, had died. Those of my 
hearers who have lived through a single genuine, 



OF FRANKFORD. 



121 



orthodox revival will never, never forget it. They 
know, as surely as they know their existence, that 
such occasions are not due to the mere working of the 
natural feeling, to the mere moral efficacy of the 
truth, but to the presence, power, and controlling 
influence of God's Holy Spirit. 

I should like to be indulged for a few minutes in 
speaking of some of those men, who were then in 
college. One was the Kev. Daniel Baker, whose 
name I have already mentioned. I dare say there is 
not a man on this platform who has not heard of him. 
It has been a lesson to me, it may be a lesson to some 
of our younger brethren, to show how little we can 
forecast the future, to say that when he left college in 
1815, he refused to enter the Theological Seminary at 
Princeton, and gave as a reason that he intended to 
spend his life in preaching the gospel to the poor in 
the mountains of Virginia. In six months he was 
licensed. The first place to which he was called, was 
the city of Savannah, and next the city of Washing- 
ton. That was the way God ordained things. God 
had given him natural gifts, however, and the Spirit 
had endued him with certain special graces, and God 
sent him through the length and breadth of this land 
as an evangelist, or, as commonly and properly called 
in our times, a revival preacher ; and God blessed his 
11 



122 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



labors ; and there he is (pointing upwards) before the 
throne, with crowds around him on whom he can 
look and say, u Here, Lord, are the souls whom thou 
hast given me." 

Another of our classmates, who was specially inti- 
mate with your former pastor during his college-life, 
w r as Bishop Johns, of Virginia, our first-honor-man. 
And I want to say here, as I speak in the presence of 
a great many young people, that his character and 
standing in college and in the seminary and after- 
wards as a preacher, was this — it was always to do 
his best — always to do his best. He always prepared 
for every recitation the best way he could ; for every 
oration he had to deliver he made the most careful 
preparation in his power — he wrote it two weeks 
before delivered and had it committed ; and so when 
he entered the ministry it was the same way ; and I 
question whether there is any man in the American 
church, who has done more good than he. Always, 
young brethren, do the best you can. 

And now I must stop. Here we are where Dr. 
Biggs stood and preached. . .My dear hearers, do you 
think Dr. Biggs' influence is gone ? Men of science 
tell us that force is indestructible. Some one long ago 
said, though /perhaps extravagantly, that every word 
uttered on the face of the earth is still pulsating some- 



OF FBANKFORB. 123 

✓ 

where in the regions of space. But the sober truth, 
scientifically told, is. that no force is ever lost. And 
if this be true of physical, it is no less true of moral 
and spiritual forces. No word ever uttered for Christ 
loses its effect — never. Every impression made on an 
immortal soul for good, continues, still operates, 
directly or indirectly, and will operate on that soul to 
all eternity. Nor is that all, nor is that a thousandth 
part of the truth. Xo such impulse imparted to one 
soul tails to be communicated to other souls, and from 
others to others, and to others and to others, till it 
swells and extends immeasurably. O ye pastors, 
down-hearted pastors, who think you are doing 
nothing, that your words are vain, who take up the 
lamentation of Isaiah and say, " Lord, who hath 
believed our report ? and to whom is the arm of the 
Lord revealed oh, remember, you have never 
uttered a truth that will not last in its influence for 
ever. Every song of praise to Jesus Christ, my 
dear hearer, rings through all space, and through all 
eternity. And it occurs to me — though this perhaps 
is not exactly the place appropriate to say it, yet I 
cannot help saying, — O, ye sons of men, remember, 
that every wicked influence you exert upon your 
fellow-men lasts, lasts forever. 



124 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



VII. 

ANTHEM. 

SUNG BY THE CHOIR. 

and it shall come to pass. 

Bass. Solo. 

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain 
of the Lord's house shall be established on the tops of the moun- 
tains, 

And be exalted above the hills. 

Choktfs. 

And it shall come to pass, &c. 
And all nations shall flow unto it, 
And many people shall go, and say, 

Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the JLord : to 
the house of the God of Jacob, 

And he will teach us of his ways and we will walk, will walk 
in his ways. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the 
word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 



VIII. 

ADDRESS. 

BY THE EEV. JAMES M<COSH, D.D. LL.D. 

When your pastor invited me to be present on this 
occasion of the centennial anniversary of your Church, 
I was induced to accept his kind invitation partly 
because he came to me with an Irish tongue, and I 



OF FEANKFORD. 



125 



had some evidence that he had an Irish heart. But 
that was not all. He has a very promising boy in 
our college at Princeton, who, if he continues as he 
has begun^ will prove himself worthy of his father; 
and I thought as you had sent this boy to Princeton, 
I must return the compliment by coming to see you. 

I see that I am expected to speak of Presbyterian- 
ism and an educated ministry. In doing so I may 
say, I believe in the holy Catholic church — not the 
holy Romish Church, for I am not sure that she is 
entitled to be called holy, and I do not believe the 
Romish church is the Catholic church. Xotwith- 
standing, I do believe in the Catholic church and the 
communion of saints. I believe the church is one ; I 
believe therefore in other portions of the church of 
Christ, that do not agree with us Presbyterians in 
every thing. I have great pleasure in holding fellow- 
ship with Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists ; indeed 
I do not think of any leading denomination in Great 
Britain or Ireland, with which I have not had plea- 
sant connection, doing some small service for them, 
and receiving far greater benefit in return. But still 
we are met here as a body of Presbyterians, with our 
friends of other denominations whom we are glad to 
see here, and it is therefore allowable for us, once in a 
hundred vears, to speak a little about Presbyterianism. 

11* 



126 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CII 



We believe Presbyterianism is founded on the word 
of God, and agreeable thereto ; but as an organization 
of the church, separate from other organizations, it 
began in the era of the Reformation. It was bred in 
a mountain country, Switzerland, transplanted into 
Scotland ; came to the north of Ireland ; and thence 
was transported to America, and has flourished and 
taken deep root here. There is one characteristic of 
this church which I wish especially to bring before 
you on this occasion, and that is the close and intimate 
connection, throughout its whole history, that has 
existed between Presbyterianism and education. I 
believe Protestantism in itself is favorable to en- 
lightenment ; it cannot subsist except among a people 
taught in the word of God. Presbyterianism, in 
particular, from the fact that it is an organic system, 
at an early date sought to establish a system of schools 
— lower schools, upper schools, higher schools or 
academies, and colleges or universities. It did so in 
Geneva, the place of its birth. Travelling in Switzer- 
land you can tell whether you are in a Protestant 
canton, or in a Roman Catholic canton, by five 
minutes' conversation. But the system of elementary 
education was first organized in Scotland. I know 
that something is claimed for the United States of 
America as the first to organize a system of common 



OF FRANKFORD. 



127 



schools ; but the principle that every parish ought to 
have a school, and that every child has a right to be 
educated, was undoubtedly first announced by John 
Knox ; and not only did he announce this as a specu- 
lative principle, but he put it into execution ; and 
when he died, there was a school in every parish 
except a few of the most remote, and an academy in 
every important town, and no less than four universi- 
ties in that comparatively small country ; and ever 
since that time, the Presbyterian church has had an 
educated ministry. The Presbyterian church in Scot- 
land has passed through many and great difficulties. 
For twenty-eight years her communicants were hunted 
upon the mountains; yet descended from that noble 
old Scot, they stood up for the independence of the 
church, and resisted foreign aggression, though subjec- 
ted thereby to imprisonment and death ; and during 
those twenty-eight years they insisted that the great 
body of their ministers should be thoroughly educated. 

In that country they require, first, attendance upon 
some college for four years, then at a theological 
school three, four or six years ; and it is only after 
they have gone through this process, that they are 
considered prepared to enter upon the ministry. They 
hold that to build up the Christian church, men 
should be well-educated, highly cultivated, able to 



128 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHURCH 



bring out of the treasury things new and old, 
thoroughly conversant with the language in which 
the Scriptures were written, and with the word of 
God as a system, and with the history of the church 
in various ages ; and thus fit instruments in the 
hands of God, to enlighten the people from Sabbath 
to Sabbath. That is the principle laid down by the 
Presbyterian church in Scotland, and continued from 
the time of John Knox in 1660, to this day. 

The church passed through that country into 
Ireland, and there it has been the happiest educational 
agency that has been employed — -I may say the only 
agency within the last four years. In the north of 
Ireland, you will find the people industrious and 
moral. Crime is scarcely known among them ; half a 
dozen policemen keep the whole of northern Ireland 
in order. If you go into prisons you will find not 
above two in a hundred that are Presbyterians. 
Parents educate their children, even where it is a 
matter of very great inconvenience. In this country 
also you find an educated ministry. In Ireland every 
person in ordinary circumstances, intended for the 
ministry, is required to go at least three years to some 
college — very commonly now Queen's College. He is 
subjected to a very rigid examination before entering, 
and again at the close. He then pursues a three 



OF FRANKFORD. 



129 



years' course in the theological seminary, where the 
professors are men of great learning and ability. The 
order recognized there is that a man must first be 
called of God, and then educated, and sent forth to 
the work of the ministry. 

Now, it was out of Scotland, not directly, as out of 
Scotland in Ireland — what you call in this country the 
Scotch-Irish, that the great Presbyterian churches, with 
the exception of the Dutch Reformed, have come, em- 
bracing now, I believe, somewhere about six thousand 
congregations. And these men brought over with 
them the principles in which they had been taught in 
Scotland and Ireland ; and throughout the whole his- 
tory of the Presbyterian church what has been the 
fact ? Schools have sprung up here and there, fitted 
to impart a higher education, and theological semina- 
ries for the education of young men for the ministry. 
Princeton was primarily established for the purpose 
of educating those who felt themselves called to 
preach the gospel ; but others have availed themselves 
of its advantages, so that not half the young men 
educated there intend entering the ministry. During 
the last two or three weeks as the result of the work 
of God there, a larger number are looking forward to 
the ministry than for many years, and some of them 
have their minds fixed on missionary fields. 



1 30 THE PBESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



We are proud, in this country, as in Scotland, of 
our elementary schools. I think we ought to be 
proud of them. America owes its greatness, not 
merely to its political institutions, however admirable, 
but to two things — first, to the religion of the people, 
and second, to its elementary schools and its col- 
leges. This national system of education when in 
danger must be resolutely defended by every patriot 
(applause). But while we are and ought to be proud 
of our elementary schools, and defend them at all 
hazards, there is another agency at work in promoting 
education. When visiting Germany, some years ago, 
I devoted considerable time inquiring into the educa- 
tion of that country. I found there a system of edu- 
cation equal, superior in many respects — not in all — - 
to that which is to be found either in Scotland or the 
United States — even in Massachusetts, which takes 
the lead ; yet I did not find in Germany, from very 
close intercourse, so much reading and higher culture. 
What is the reason ? The Germans have no Sabbath ; 
and what is the consequence ? I find there the people 
on the Sabbath morning toiling from six o'clock until 
after mid-day. They have no time for reading. The 
afternoons and evenings are spent at the beer and 
dancing gardens. They have no time for reading or 
reflection. And what is the cause of all this ? 



OF FRANKFORD. 



131 



The rationalistic doctrines taught them. As a con- 
sequence of this state of things the Germans are less 
intelligent than the Protestants of Scotland, Ireland 
and America, who receive a great deal of their most 
valuable instruction on the Lord's Day. 

I would say nothing against any denomination, but, 
nevertheless, I congratulate that people who have an 
educated ministry to preach to them from Sabbath to 
Sabbath. It is a great advantage to parents to have 
in the pulpit on the Lord's day ministers well-edu- 
cated and thoughtful — who can draw from nature as 
well as the word of God, to illustrate and enforce 
divine truth. I believe, therefore, that the people of 
Scotland, the north of Ireland, and the Presbyterian 
church of America have been rewarded for insisting; 
upon an educated ministry. I believe it is of the 
utmost moment for you parents to have an educated 
ministry. 

Now I must give a practical application to all this. 
It is a hobby of mine — but I trust it will become 
everybody's, and then it will cease to be mine — that I 
do not think the ministry of this country is paid as it 
ought to be. "What do you require of your ministers? 
First to go to school three, four or five years not 
necessary for others ; then to spend four years in col- 
lege, and afterwards several years at a theological 



132 THE PRESB YTERIAN CH UB OH 



seminary. All this is attended with considerable 
expense. Here are, say ten years of time, spent in 
preparation for his calling, during which he receives 
nothing and is an expense ; and yet there are not a 
few congregations that pay their ministers less than a 
mechanic receives. What does the word of God say ? 
" Let him that is taught in the word of God commu- 
nicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." If 
there is a duty on the part of the church as an eccle- 
siastical body to see its ministers educated, there is 
also a duty to see them something like adequately 
remunerated. I would not have you make your pas- 
tor wealthy. You over-feed some while many have 
not enough for comfort. There should be a greater 
equality. Those who minister to you in holy things 
should receive such compensation for their services as 
will place them above carking cares about temporal 
matters. 

In concluding I have to thank your pastor for 
bringing me here to see this assembly. I believe it 
right to commemorate what men did in seasons 
closing. I think it is proper for us to remember the 
men that by faith and patience established churches in 
our land ; and when a hundred years run their course 
I hope this Church will then be the grandmother, and 
great-grandmother, to other churches; and, at a meet- 



OF FRANKFORD. 



133 



ing like this they will thank God for the effort made 
a hundred years ago. 



IX. 

HYMN. 

READ BY THE REV. B. L. AGNEW. 

SUNG BY THE CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. 

Joyfully, joyfully onward we move, 
Bound to the land of bright spirits above ; 
Angelic choristers sing as we come, 
Joyfully, joyfully haste to your home : 
Soon, with our pilgrimage ended below, 
Home to the land of bright spirits we go, 
Pilgrims and strangers no more shall we roam, 
Joyfully, joyfully resting at home. 

Friends, fondly cherished, have passed on before, 
Waiting, they watch us approaching the shore ; 
Singing to cheer us through death's chilling gloom 
Joyfully, joyfully haste to your home. 
Sounds of sweet melody fall on the ear, 
Harps of the blessed, your voices we hear ; 
Kings with the harmony heaven's high dome, 
Joyfully, joyfully haste to your home. 

Death with his weapons may soon lay us low, 
Safe in our Saviour, we fear not the blow. 
Jesus hath broken the bars of the tomb, 
Joyfully, joyfully will we go home. 
12 



1 34 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUR Off 



Bright will the morn of eternity dawn, 
Death shall be conquered, his sceptre be gone; 
Over the plains of blest Canaan we'll roam, 
Joyfully, joyfully with Christ at home. 



x. 

BENEDICTION. 

BY THE REV. J. GRIER RALSTON, I). I)., LL.D. 



/ 



Evening Exercises, 7i o'clock. 



THE REV. J. ADDISON HENRY, PRESIDING. 



L 

INVOCATION. 

BY THE REV. CALVIN W. FERRIDAY. 

OTHOU most high, great, and true God, who art 
faithful to thy promise and dost love those that 
come unto thee, who art infinite, eternal, and un- 
changeable in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, 
justice, goodness and truth ; with whom a thousand 
years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years! 
we most humbly invoke thy divine presence during 
our services this evening. Deign to dwell here, Lord 
God ; sanctify every heart ; may the words of truth 
we hear be implanted in our hearts, and bring forth 
the fruits of righteousness to the glory of thy holy 
name through Jesus Christ. Amen. 

135 



136 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHUB OH 



II. 

ANTHEM. 

SUNG BY THE CHOIR. 

Sentence. 

how lovely. 

Choeus. 

Oh how lovely is Zion, city of our God. 
Joy and peace shall dwell in thee. 



III. 

PRAYER, 

BY THE EEV. J. B. DAVIS. 

O Thou from whom all blessings flow, again would 
we come into thy sacred presence ; with adoring 
reverence and with grateful hearts would we recognize 
thy goodness and mercy to us this day ! O God. we 
thank thee for the position we occupy to-day ! We 
thank thee, O God, for the precious remembrances of 
the past, which we have to-day cherished ! We thank 
thee for the pleasing anticipations which we are per- 
mitted to cherish, in reference to the future. We 
thank thee for the evidence we have to-day, that this 
vine is a vine of thine own planting. We thank thee 
for all the tokens of favor and mercy, which thou hast 



OF FRANKFORD. 



137 



shown thy servants who have done the work in this 
part of thy vineyard in days gone by. We thank 
thee for all the influences for good, which have been 
set in operation here, which shall continue to be felt 
as long as eternity shall last. O, our Father, we 
thank thee for the pleasing emotions that have to-day 
been awakened in our souls ! We thank thee for the 
important lessons we here to day learn — lessons 
learned from the past, which w T e trust shall be for 
good to us and others in the future. We thank thee 
for all our eyes have seen and for all our ears have 
this day heard. JNFow 7 , O God, we pray that thy pre- 
sence may be with us to-night, that thy heavenly 
benediction may rest upon us in the progress of these 
services. Wilt thou assist those who shall take part 
in them, and touch their lips as with a live coal from 
off thine altar ; and may everything that shall be said 
be accompanied with thy blessing and have a salutary 
influence upon all. 

We ask that thy blessing may rest upon this 
Church. Wilt thou continue here to dwell and to 
follow* with thy blessing, the use of the means of 
grace ; and grant that many precious souls may yet 
be here gathered into thy fold and kingdom. Oh 
grant, we pray thee, that thy special blessing may 
rest upon thy servant who is permitted to close the 

12* 



138 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



work of a century, here under circumstances of such 
mercy and such interest. May his bow continue to 
abide in strength, and may thy presence be with him 
in the future as in the past. Grant, O God, we pray, 
that the influence of this day may strengthen his 
hands, and that he may be greatly encouraged and 
blessed in his work in the future, and more from this 
day forth than ever before. 

Let thy heavenly benediction rest upon this com- 
pany of immortal souls, and may those of us who 
wait and worship here to-day be gathered, all of us, 
at last to worship before thy throne above, we ask for 
Jesus' sake. Amen. 



IV. 

ADDRESS 

BY HON. JOSEPH ALLISON, LL.D. 

I will commence my remarks by a confession— in 
advance of what I shall have to say to you. It has 
been promised for me that my special theme shall be 
the founders of the Presbyterian church in Philadel- 
phia. I am not able to speak to you on this subject 
as I could wish to do ; it is one that might be made 
of interest to a Philadelphia audience, if time could 



OF FEANKFORD. 



139 



be taken to investigate it and present it in its proper 
order and arrangement. But it would not interest 
you to be told why my remarks must be of a more 
general nature than I desire them to be ; I have made 
one confession — let that suffice. We are assembled 
upon an occasion that is of much interest, not to you 
only who are residents of Frankford, but to all who 
are permitted to meet with you to-night and join 
in the thanksgiving for the blessing which has been 
conferred on you, permitting you to celebrate the hun- 
dredth anniversary of the organization of your 
Church. Churches, like individuals, have their his- 
tory ; they rise and flourish for a time, but many of 
them long, long before their hundredth anniversary 
die and are forgotten : they pass away as if they had 
never been. But the good providence of God has 
kept this Church together, and the small congregation 
which, a century ago, was here organized, is permitted 
after so many years of trial and varied fortune to 
rejoice in a prosperity which is an evidence of Hea- 
ven's favor to it. 

I read with great pleasure in one of our evening 
papers, as I rode out to this meeting, the very inter- 
esting and instructive address made to you by your 
most excellent pastor this morning ; and as he spoke 
of the handful of men who, a century ago, gathered 



1 40 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



in this borough to organize themselves into a church, 
professing substantially the faith which you profess 
and maintain to-day, I thought it was a favor which 
was not given to every one who ministers at the altar, 
to be permitted to dig up the foundation stones of the 
church of w T hich he is bishop, and present them to his 
people as the treasured memorials of their past his- 
tory. It reminded me of a picture Scott has drawn 
of Old Mortality, who upon the moors and upon the 
mountains of his native Scotland, devoted his life 
to the perpetuation of the memory of the martyrs 
who died for the faith as it is in Jesus Christ. I 
saw before me his picture of that old man with his 
little pony, his saddle of straw and bridle of rope, his 
chisel and mallet; I thought I could see him as he is 
represented, pausing in his work of retracing upon 
the tombs and grave-stones of the dead, who died for 
" Christ's crown and covenant," the names of the 
sainted heroes of his native land ; doing what he could 
to preserve the memory of the martyrs who perished 
by torture, by famine, by fire and by sword, in cave, 
and in dungeon, and wherever the arm of a bloody 
persecution could reach them. I thought as I read 
the address to which I have referred, that you have 
an Old Mortality here among you, who, as a labor of 
love, had used his chisel and mallet and brought out 



OF FRANKFORD. 



141 



again, in bold relief, the names of the men who a 
hundred years ago in Frankforcl founded the organi- 
zation of which you are the representatives and the 
embodiment to-day. And I wish I had it in my 
power to do for you that which I had hoped to do ; 
supplement the work of your pastor, and bring before 
you the history of some of those who in Philadelphia, 
even before the organization of this congregation, 
labored to found in this land the Presbyterian 
Church, the counterpart of the Church of Scotland. 

It is more than a hundred and ninety years since 
the first Presbyterian church was constituted in this 
city ; a handful of believers, who long hesitated as to 
whether they had strength and faith enough to assume 
the responsibility of an organization, took to them- 
selves the name of the First Presbyterian Church of the 
city of Philadelphia. In 1701, the Eev. Mr. Andrews 
was installed the pastor of that congregation. For a 
long time Presbyterianism was not a very great suc- 
cess in the Quaker City. Many years passed by and 
it numbered but four congregations. Then Philadel- 
phia, comparatively speaking, was but a village ; now 
it is a city of nearly eight hundred thousand people ; 
and the germ that was then planted has grown with 
our growth, strengthened with our strength, and Pres- 
byterianism here to-clay may claim to be a power 



1 42 THE PRESB Y TEE I AN CHUR CII 



among the denominations. I say this not in the spirit 
of vain glory ; not for the purpose of contrasting our 
position with that of others to their disadvantage. I 
speak merely of the fact as it exists, and ask you to 
look at its numerous organizations ; its churches ; the 
numbers, power, influence, and wealth of the member- 
ship of these churches. And when you reflect that it 
was only in 1701 that the first church had a pastor 
installed over it, have we not as a denomination rea- 
son to believe that the power which has enabled us as 
a body thus to make progress, has not been of man but 
of God ? That he has counselled our counsellors ; 
that he has led them and us in the way in which we 
have been able to walk, and for all our prosperity to- 
day we have reason to give thanks. 

One element of success to which we owe much, and 
which belongs perhaps to all organizations in the 
United States, is, that we are not as they are in other 
lands, without diversity in unity. We have in this 
country the combination of elements that has formed 
us into a peculiar people, and this peculiarity is 
stamped upon the Presbyterian churches of our land. 
For while we hold to the same system of doctrine, 
have the same standard with Presbyterian churches 
in other countries, we have a life and a spirit that are 
especially our own. Any one who will look over 



OF FRANKFORD. 



143 



the records of the early history of Presbyterianism in 
Philadelphia, will find that it was made up of men 
from Old England, and from New England ; from 
Ireland, from Scotland and from Wales. It is the 
fusion of this varied, and to some extent conflicting, 
material, that has made us what we are, partaking 
somewhat of the virtues and the faults of all. And 
if you will permit me, I will here say that the Pres- 
byterian church in this city and of our entire country 
is indebted, in no small degree, to the country from 
which you and I claim to have our origin. The 
names of Andrews and Cross, and Finley and Ten- 
nent indicate who the master workmen were, and 
from whence they came, that laid deep, and broad, and 
solid, the foundations of our church in this city and 
its vicinity. 

The North of Ireland sent to us large stores of 
treasure — more valuable far than gold, or silver, or 
precious stones; it sent her men, eminent for their 
piety and learning, to minister in our pulpits ; and 
with them came a tide of immigration that bore upon 
its w r aves, the people who have always stood firm in 
their faith in God, adhering with unflinching tenacity 
to their stern and rigid Calvinism : by which sign 
they conquered. One name among the leaders of 
these hosts is worthy of special mention. If he were 



1 44 THE PEESB YTERIAN CHUB GH 



alive to-day, our country could not repay to Gilbert 
William Tennent the debt it would owe to him, who, 
single-handed, established in the adjoining county of 
Bucks, his humble Log College. His object was to 
provide an educated ministry for the Presbyterian 
church of this country; and how fully his purpose 
has been attained, you will all understand when I 
mention the fact, known to many here to-night, that 
the Log College, founded in what was then almost a 
wilderness, bloomed into Princeton College and 
Seminary. Four sons of the founder of the Log 
College followed in the footsteps of their father; trained 
in his own school they preached the gospel to the 
people, generally to the Presbyterians of this region, 
round about where we are assembled to-night. One 
of these brothers, Gilbert Tennent, was pre-eminent in 
his day as a man of power, whose ministry was blessed 
as instrumental to the conversion of many souls. 

At this early period, and associated with the Ten- 
nents, came to our shores Whitefielcl, whose evangelistic 
labors were so greatly blessed that to this day and to 
the end of time, men shall not cease to be the better 
for his ministry here. The Presbyterian church was 
greatly aroused and quickened by his voice, which 
spoke for God to his audiences of ten thousand people, 
as it were with the voice of a trumpet. 



OF FRAXKFOED. 



145 



These are some of the instrumentalities which were 
made use of to establish the Presbyterian church in 
this portion of our country ; and whatever degree of 
prosperity has been given us 3 we owe much, more than 
can ever be known on earth, to the agencies to which 
I have referred, 

I now leave this aspect of the subject: may I speak 
for a moment, not of the past but of the future — of 
what our church may yet hope to accomplish ? Xever 
had it a brighter prospect : we have perfect peace 
within our borders, and we are therefore prepared to 
consecrate ourselves to the work which is laid upon 
us ; the vital question is ; Will we do it ? Our spe- 
cial field is our country ; our general field is the 
world; and the command is. " Go into my vineyard, 
and work/' And while we work let us not forget to 
hold fast to the form of sound doctrine : but more 
careful still to maintain our faith and hope in Him who 
is the resurrection and the life. Let us take courage 
from the fact that we have been preserved from falling 
into fatal error of doctrine; that God has encamped 
about our church, and guarded us from defection and 
apostasy which he has suffered to fall upon other 
churches. The mere intelligence of the Calvinistic 
churches of New England, did not prevent the 
descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, who endured so 

13 



146 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



much for conscience' sake, from lapsing into Unita- 
rianism ; and even the Church of Holland, with its 
glorious history, which belongs to its better and purer 
days, has been given over to Rationalism and unbe- 
lief. Our safety is in our dependence upon the divine 
arm ; there and there only may we ever rest. 

About two years ago I was in another city of 
Frankford, several thousand miles distant from us. 
It was a great pleasure to follow as far as I was able 
in the footsteps of Luther, in that city where he lived 
for several years. I visited repeatedly the church in 
which he preached the doctrines of the Reformation, 
and felt while there, that I stood upon ground more 
holy, than when under the roof of the old cathedral, 
where for centuries the emperors of the German 
Empire were elected and crowned. I went from 
Frankford, to the city of Worms and stood beneath 
the spreading branches of the magnificent tree, at 
whose foot Luther rested before entering the city to 
appear before the Emperor and his Diet, to answer for 
his faith ; and where he replied to the warning from 
his friends, 

" I will fulfil my promise, in answer to the summons of 
Charles, though there be as many devils in Worms as there are 
tiles upon the roofs of the houses." 



OF FRANKFORD. 



147 



And again I stood where Luther stood before the em- 
bodiment of the power of the Empire; and when 
called upon to recant, raising his hands and eyes to 
heaven, he exclaimed — 

M Here I stand, I cannot go forward, I cannot go backward. 
So help me God." 

I thought then, as I believe now, that there is a vital, 
sustaining, life-giving power in the fundamental 
doctrine, on which Luther planted himself, of justifi- 
cation by faith. Upon this rock may this Church ever 
rest. 

In conclusion I renew my congratulations to you, 
the minister of this Church, and to the people of your 
charge. I congratulate you all on your prosperous 
condition, and hope that your twenty years' pastorate 
over this congregation may have added to it many years 
of increasing usefulness and happiness. And when 
another century shall have ended its course may you 
and your co-laborers have as much justice done to 
you, by one who shall as faithfully revive your deeds 
in connection with this organization, as you have done 
for those who one hundred years ago here lived and 
labored as pastors and members of this Church. 



148 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



V. 

ANTHEM. 

SUNG BY THE CHOIR. 

i'll wash my hands in innocency. 

Duett and Chorus. 
I'll wash my hands in innocency, 

Lord, and so will I go to thine altar. 

Sow.— Treble. 
That I may show the voice of thanksgiving, 
And tell of all thy wondrous works. 

Solo. — Bass. 

Lord, I have loved the habitation of thine house, and the place 
where thine honor dwelleth. 

Duett. — Trebles. 

1 will walk, I will walk innocently, 

deliver me, deliver me, 
And be merciful unto me. 

Choeus. 

1 will praise the Lord in the congregation. 



OF FRANKFORD. 



149 



VI. 

ADDRESS 

BY THE REV. E. R. BEADLE, D. D., LL. D. 

This change in the programme will cause no incon- 
venience to you, probably, while it relieves me from a 
personal and somewhat trying embarrassment which 
has been pressing upon me all the afternoon to solve 
the problem — "What shall the man do who comes after 
the king ?" We have heard a good deal to-day about 
Presbyterianism. It runs in my blood. But I am 
sorry that I have not heard one word said to-day about 
old-fashioned Presbyterianism. I am asked to speak 
(as this programme indicates) on Presbyterianism and 
Missions — as if these two were not one. They mean 
precisely the same thing. The very first missionaries 
that ever went out to preach the gospel of Christ were 
Presbyterians, and Peter was one of them (laughter). 
If they were not Presbyterians, if each man was not 
a presbuteros, I would like to know what he was. So 
that our church, as our good friend at the head of 
Princeton stated — at least implied — did not begin at 
Geneva ; it only sprang up again there. All the mis- 
sionaries and elders in the early church were presby- 

13* 



1 50 THE PRESB YTEEIAN CH UR CH 



ters — there was the beginning of the Presbyterian 
church. Then in later years there came the Wal- 
denses. Driven out of the Roman Catholic Church 
they became Presbyterians in fact. Every congrega- 
tion had a consistory, — made up of a minister, an 
elder, and a deacon. Is not that Presbyterianism ? 
The Huguenots were Presbyterians. They accepted 
the doctrines and government of Calvin, they filled 
France with their blood as with their faith, they came 
to America and settled through New Jersey, and went 
down into Maryland and the Carolinas, and found 
their way to Boston — the hub of the universe. And 
then from Geneva there was another spring flowing in 
this old-fashioned style, and it burst up in Scotland ; 
and that church in Scotland is remarkable for two 
things— martyrs and missions. We have been told 
that some of the noblest men in the Presbyterian 
church in America came from Scotland. In 1701, as 
you have heard, they landed and gathered about 
Philadelphia in little flocks, and just one year after 
landing they had a pnstor and a church established. 
They had no railroads then nor hotels, but went on 
horseback through this then wilderness to preach the 
gospel. 

In 1709, good old Scotland, which I love as I do 
the land in which I was born, sent the first missionary 



OF FRANKFORT). 



151 



to heathendom; and where do you suppose he went? 
Why, where we want missionaries to go now — to 
Long Island (laughter). The very first missionary of 
the Presbyterian church ever sent to heathendom 
went to Long Island ; and the next missionary of the 
Presbyterian church sent out on this continent was 
David Brainercl. Did you ever hear of him ? You 
go up to Easton, some of you. There, where Lafayette 
College is located, Brainercl preached to the Indians. 
And in some portions of New Jersey he wrought a 
work that has never been paralleled on the face of this 
globe. He was a Presbyterian. And then there was 
John H. Rice, who toiled among the Africans of Vir- 
ginia when he could have filled the first pulpits of the 
land. He was another of our early missionaries. 
And then there were those old Scotch-Irish, of whom 
you will hear from the speaker who is to follow me. 
They were bent on preaching the gospel to the regions 
beyond, and Beveridge was sent on horseback from 
Philadelphia to Caledonia in Canada, to hunt up 
some Scotch Highlanders that were understood to be 
living there. There was a Mr. Harvey reported to be 
a chief man among them. He hunted through the 
wilderness, and by and by got track of him ; found 
his cabin and knocked at his door. " Come in," said 
a broad Scotch voice; he went in and found a man on 



152 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



a shoemaker's bench, mending an old shoe ; he kept 
on with his work, never looking up at all. Beveridge 
said nothing for a moment, but at length inquired, 
"Do you want any preaching here?" Laying down 
his tools and springing to his feet, "Yes," said he, 
" we do." That was the beginning of the missionary 
work in that country that has grown into Presbyteries 
and Synods and poured its revenues into the kingdom 
of God. That is the way Presbyterians worked on 
with their missions. Look at the work of the Pres- 
byterian Board of Missions — at what it has done for 
the Indians in our country — what it is doing in 
Africa, and in Japan, and in the Indies. Oh, how 
my heart flutters when I say that word ! What 
has the Presbyterian church done in India? Some 
of the best missionary blood shed since the days of 
the early martyrs has been shed in India. And in 
China, look at what our Presbyterian church is 
doing ! 

We have heard much of what has been done for the 
last hundred years for this church. Depend upon it, 
ours has not been a Rip Van Winkle sleep. We 
have been growing through all this century with these 
changes and this progress. We have not awakened 
to-day in Frankford, to find for the first time that we 
can go to Philadelphia by steam. I remember myself 



OF FBANKFORB. 



153 



— and I am not so gray as some men here — the time 
when it was said in my hearing. 

M You can go in the stage all the way from Albany to Coopers- 
town, X. Y., sixty miles, in twenty-four hours, by riding night 
and day," (laughter.) 

And I can remember when you could go all the way 
from Utica to Rochester by canal packet — at the rate 
of six miles an hour daughter'). Yes, I have heard 
that, and have lived to see the prediction of Stevenson 
made good. When asked what he thought about 
locomotives, he ventured, very tremblingly, to say. he 
hoped he should live to see the time when locomotives 
would draw trains on railways, with freight cars 
attached, at the rate of twelve miles an hour ; and 
afterwards he said he wanted to say twenty, but did 
not dare to. Now, sir. you and I have gone from 
Liverpool to London, over and over again, at the rate 
of sixty miles an hour. 

Now, I wish just to ask you from this advanced 
point in history, from this advanced point in Presby- 
terianism. what you mean to do for the next century. 
A hundred years have passed. This Church is not to- 
day as it was a hundred years ago. You have already 
heard that. Goel is going before you, and bringing 
you up to a high place in Israel, and now he asks you 



154 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



what you are going to do for the time to come. The 
great work of missions is only begun, and God is 
sounding to a quicker march everywhere, and espe- 
cially to you and to us in this land. 

I sweep away as by magic, for an instant, a hun- 
dred years to corne. We heard from the eloquent 
gentleman before me, the hope expressed that when 
this hundred years were passed, there should be an in- 
gathering here like this ; and when another century 
shall have succeeded, that it should be repeated ; but 
I believe that when that hundred years have been 
told and there shall gather on this soil, perhaps on 
this very spot, a congregation to recite the records of 
the past, they will not come here to tell of an edifice 
built anew, with all the modern improvements on the 
ground where this shall have worn down to the dust, 
they will not come here to felicitate one another, that 
a Presbyterian church is a hard thing to kill, as we 
heard this morning, but they will come here, as I 
believe, to say and to sing, " The world is won for 
Christ." 



OF FRANKFORD. 



155 



VII. 

HYMN, 

READ BY THE REV. W. R. WORK. 

SUNG BY THE CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. 
MY DAYS AEE GLIDING SWIFTLY. 

My days are gliding swiftly by, 

And I a pilgrim stranger, 
Would not detain them as they fly, 

These hours of toil and danger ; 

For oh, we stand on Jordan's strand, 
Our friends are passing over, 

And just before, the shining shore 
We may almost discover. 

We'll gird our loins, my brethren dear, 

Our distant home discerning ; 
Our absent Lord has left us word, 

Let every lamp be burning ; 
For oh, we stand, &c. 

Should coming days be cold and dark, 

We need not cease our singing ; 
That perfect rest naught can molest, 

Where angel harps are ringing ; 
For oh, we stand, &c. 



156 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUR CH 



Let sorrow's rudest tempest blow, 

Each cord on earth to sever ; 
Our King says, " Come/' and there's our home 

For ever, oh, for ever. 
For oh, we stand, &c. 

VIII. 

ADDRESS, 

BY THE REV. JOHN HALL, D. D., OF NEW YORK. 

My Christian Friends : — It gives me great pleasure, 
upon this special occasion, to address a few words to 
this magnificent audience, who seem to show their 
deep interest in the occasion by the patience with 
which they remain here after the lengthened, and, I 
doubt not, deeply interesting services of the day. My 
brother, Dr. Beadle, asked the question, " What is 
the man to do who comes after the king ?" — putting 
me in that position. Dr. Beadle ought to know there 
is no king here. This is a commonwealth, it is an 
American republic, and there is no king on this plat- 
form. Presbyterianism is republicanism, too, of the 
truest and best order; and we are all brethren. We 
all stand on a level, and have no king and no master 
but Jesus Christ, King and Head of the church. 

I am to speak to you of a section of the population 



OF FRANKFORD. 



157 



and a constituent element in one of the great churches 
into whose heart this conviction has, I may say, been 
burned by long and painful experience ; I am to speak 
to you of the Scotch-Irish , and yet it is necessary to 
define the term in the very beginning. These people 
are not Scotch, for they were not born in Scotland ; 
and they are not Irish, for they do not belong to Ire- 
land, and do not speak the tongue, and do not inherit 
the traditions. They are people who, two centuries 
ago — nearly three centuries, some of them — crossed 
over from Scotland into Ireland and remained there 
until a very considerable number of them saw good 
reason to leave Ireland and come to this continent. 
When we speak of the Irish, properly speaking, our 
Roman Catholic fellow-citizens are more particularly 
described ; when w T e speak of the Scotch-Irish you 
may be tolerably confident we are speaking of the 
Presbyterian people, who come, for the most part, 
from the northern province. As you pass along the 
northern shore of Ireland and look across the water, 
at a distance of thirteen or fourteen miles, you can see 
the Scottish land ; so it is not difficult to see how it 
was the Scotch people accepted the invitation extended 
to them, and passed over in the days of persecution 
and took possession of the county of Antrim and 
adjacent parts of that country. When they went into 
14 



158 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUB CH 



Ireland they found it, morally and physically, in a 
most wretched condition. War had swept over the 
land ; a great deal of Ulster was covered with rocks 
and bogs; but the industry, patience and energy of the 
Scotch people, and their religious principles, speedily 
succeeded in making Ulster one of the most happy 
and prosperous provinces of the land. 

The Scotch people who settled there soon began to 
desire ministers. I am sorry to say it is not always 
the best part of the population that move away, and 
there is good reason to believe that it was so in this 
case. In many cases it was people broken down in 
means and reputation that left, and there was need of 
some religious change among them. It pleased God 
in a most remarkable manner to bless the labors of his 
servants among the Scotch people settled in Ireland. 
It is one of the glorious things about the church there 
that it was planted in the midst of glorious revivals, 
and the people became earnest, devoted Christians. 
They needed all that earnestness. As many know, an 
effort was made on the part of the government to set 
up the Established Church, and many persons began 
to look upon these Presbyterians as standing in their 
way. You can easily fancy what class of annoyances 
they were subjected to when I tell you that for a very 
long time the ministers had no license to preach, and 



OF FRANKFORD. 



159 



were liable to be imprisoned for marrying their own 
parishioners. They durst not set up an institution for 
training ministers, or even a day-school oftentimes ; 
and yet in face of these difficulties, strange to say, not 
merely through continued migration, but through 
natural growth and increase, the Presbyterian people 
multiplied in Ireland ; and it might be said of them, 
as of Israel in Egypt, the more they were afflicted the 
more they grew. Many of these people engaged in 
agricultural pursuits and soon became very desirable 
as tenants. Consequently land owners held out great 
encouragement to them to farm, giving them leases for 
thirty years. Subsequently the question of tenant- 
rights — which has given so much trouble in Ireland 
— arose ; and the people, unwilling to submit to the 
oppression of the land-owners, clubbed together and 
came over as congregations and established themselves 
in America, bringing their ministers with them, thus 
contributing largely to lay the foundation of Presby- 
terianism in this country. 

It would be interesting, if I had time, to put before 
you some of the characteristics of the people. I think of 
one clergyman who belonged to the seceding branch of 
the Presbyterian church in Ulster. Annoyances were 
put in his way, and these difficulties became so very 
great, that at length, he left the country. Three hun- 



160 THE PRESB YTERIAN CH UR CH 



dred of his people and himself took passage in a ship 
sailing from a creek called Narrow Water, from which 
no ship of any size could have sailed, and coming to 
this country settled in Carolina where he labored with 
the same fidelity as in Ireland. At length this man 
died sitting in his chair, and it is reported that on the 
table before him, when he died, there was a pastoral 
letter written by himself to the congregation in Ire- 
land — which he had left nearly thirty years before. 

From the year 1730 until about the middle of the 
last century, it has been estimated that there came 
from Ulster, probably, twelve thousand people every 
year. I had the pleasure of going back to ray native 
land last summer and visiting my home. I remem- 
ber walking over the parish with my brother, who 
lived in the neighborhood and knew all the people. 
We were comparing notes, speaking of the boys and 
girls whom we knew as children, and were surprised 
to find as we passed from house to house, scarcely one 
family from which young and vigorous men and boys 
and women had not taken their departure for 
America ; and yet in that neighborhood there are as 
many Presbyterian churches as when I was a child, 
and just as many people to fill them. 

If any one will take the trouble to look over the 
history of America he will be surprised to find what 



OF FRAXKFOBD. 



161 



a large number of the leading men of America were 
from the northern province of Ireland, or their 
descendants. Robert Fulton, who may be recognized 
as the father of our river navigation, was the child of 
comparatively poor Irish parents. The founder and 
first class-leader of the Methodist church in this 
country — a great and mighty church that has done a 
world of good, and is destined to do a great deal more 
— was the son of comparatively poor Irish peasants. 

In the year 1760, a memorial was sent from the 
corporation of the city of Philadelphia, and from the 
city of Xew York, representing the extremely dis- 
tressed condition of the Presbyterian ministers, their 
wives and children, who had come and settled in what 
were then uncongenial and inhospitable climes. They 
were then colonies of Great Britain. It was believed 
they had some claim upon the mother country ; and I 
am glad to say the Irish Presbyterian Church 
responded to that claim. 

It is very natural to inquire what particular adapta- 
tion the Scotch people had, for doing any good in this 
country, taking their place among the brotherhood of 
churches. It is my own opinion that the Scotch are 
very much improved by living two or three genera- 
tions in Ireland. I have great respect for Scotchmen, 
but a Scotchman and I, talking about this matter 

14* 



162 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



last week, agreed together that but for the grace 
of God, the Scotch would be a very unamiable 
class of men. They are a little slow and rugged, 
a little stern with a good deal of real wit in some 
of them — but not characteristic of them as a people. 
Now when they go to Ireland and live there for 
three or four generations they become a little 
brighter, quicker, gentler and more ready to appre- 
ciate a good thing. Some one has said that it requires 
something like a surgical operation, to make a Scotch- 
man appreciate a joke. There is, on the contrary, 
great readiness on the part of my countrymen in 
repartee. A story is told of one of them who, seeing 
a lady relieved of her parasol by a gust of wind, 
picked it up and returned it to her, saying, 

"Ah! ma'am, if you were as strong as you are pretty, the 
wind would not have taken it out of your hand.'' 

My countrymen are a very prolific race. A good 
Irish clergyman that I used to know, when some one 
congratulated him upon the birth of the eleventh 
child, feeling at the same time that perhaps he was 
more to be pitied, replied, 

" Well, God never sends a mouth but he sends something to 
put into it." 

The poor are blessed with a large number of children 



OF FRANKFOED. 



163 



usually, and on this principle there has been such a 
continuous stream of emigration from Ulster; and yet 
the population of that country is not diminished. It 
is told of the father of John Wesley, himself a poor 
clergyman, that he was rich upon his forty pounds 
and a baby every year ; and yet what a wonderful 
blessing came through God's care of that household, so 
poor in the resources of this world, bat rich in graces 
and gifts that made them a blessing to their kind ! 

These Scotch-Irish were staunch to the truth they 
had learned from their parents and their ministers, 
and especially from their Bibles; and well was it 
burned into them by the persecution they experienced; 
it was wrought into their very nature ; their minds 
w T ere stored with it. It was well that a strong-headed 
and hardy people like them should come to this 
country, when in its formation state, and impress upon 
it a staunch, deep love of truth and a willingness to 
support it at all hazards. 

Another thing fitted this people in a high degree 
for taking a place in this country. You know how 
much importance Presbyterians always attached to the 
catechism. (Having happily illustrated the advantage 
of a thorough acquaintance with the doctrines of the 
church as set forth in the catechism, the speaker pro- 
ceeded.) 



1 64 THE PBESB YT BRIAN CHUB CH 



I cannot help thinking, also, that another reason 
why this people have been the means of bringing 
some good to this country, has been that by their very 
history, they were taught the value of freedom of con- 
science. A people pervaded through and through 
with this principle, cannot easily be enslaved. They 
are subject only to the Lord their Creator. No men 
were wiser in counsel, readier with their purse, braver 
on the field, than these same Scotch-Irish Presby- 
terians. 

In conclusion I should be glad to say something 
more serious. I am a Presbyterian by birth, educa- 
tion and conviction. I greatly value all the good God 
has associated with that system. I am not blind or 
indifferent to the great good also associated with 
various other forms of Christian faith. I am thank- 
ful for the good that is in them. I rejoice very much 
in my Presbyterianism, because I can be true to it, 
and yet thoroughly true to all the sister denominations 
around about me. If I were to-day to abandon my 
Presbyterianism and go to some of the churches round 
about me, some of them would insist on my being 
RE-baptized and RE-ordained ; but if any one from 
another church desires to unite with us, no such re- 
quirements are needed ; if he gives evidence of having 
been born of God, there is no barrier in the way of 



OF FRANKFORD. 



165 



reception. Presbyterianism, too, is republican. The 
political organization of this country, in the beginning 
was substantially organized after the Presbyterian 
model of government ; and the legislature, in some 
States, is characterized to this day as the General As- 
semblv. I do not see why we should not be able to 
work freely, cordially, harmoniously, and to mutual 
benefit and advantage with the civil government, 
established in God's providence over this whole land ; 
and I am persuaded the more we seek to teach the 
truth as it is in God's word, both in the church and 
from house to house, the better we shall be as citizens, 
the better helpers we shall be to all the various 
evangelical churches, that are bent upon spreading the 
same truth and glorifying our Lord and Master. For 
let us not forget that the churches are not ends, but 
means to an end : the end is the salvation of immortal 
souls ; the churches, and ministers, and synods, etc., 
are so many means we think wisely adapted, divinely 
appointed by the Head of the church for the attain- 
ment of these high ends. 

Xow are there any of us here inclined to rejoice a 
little in our churches — to magnify them — who have 
never yet come to the end for which these are the 
means ? Are any of us satisfied with means, practi- 
cally despising the end ? Where is the use of our 



1 66 THE PRESB YTERIAN CHUR CH 



hearing preaching, of our attending the public wor- 
ship of God, if we are not individually saved, per- 
sonally brought into a state of fellowship with Jesus 
Christ? Now I am sure this centenary celebration 
will long be remembered by many here ; oh, how 
glad will that remembrance be, if some soul should 
remember it in this way, as to say, 

" It was at that time, it was near the close of the meeting that 
I saw the main thing for me was, to be in Jesus Christ, to trust 
in him, to close, as our fathers used to describe it, with the offer 
of Christ and accept him as my Saviour and Lord." 

What a glorious celebration that would be to com- 
plete the century of this Church's history! what a 
splendid monument to erect ! 

I have only to say in conclusion, that it gives me 
special pleasure to know that the blessing of God has 
hitherto rested upon this Church. May his blessing 
continue to be with you ; and in the memories of that 
better life, which is to come, may this Church be 
signalized as the birth-place of immortal souls, a 
centre whence emanated a wide-spread, lasting and 
spiritual influence. 



OF FRANKFORD. 



167 



IX. 

HYMN. 

SUNG BY THE CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. 
DISMISSION. 

Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing. 

Bid us all depart in peace, 
Still on gospel manna feeding, 

Pure seraphic love increase. 
Fill each breast with consolation, 

Up to thee our voices raise ; 
When we reach that blissful station, 

Then we'll give thee nobler praise. 
And we'll sing Hallelujah to God and the Lamb. 

Hallelujah for ever and ever. Amen. 

x. 

BENEDICTION. 

BY THE REV. \TM. A. JENKS. 



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